http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/arts/in-last-ship-sting-tries-to-not-steal-the-spotlight.html 2014-12-22 00:08:03 In ‘Last Ship,’ Sting Tries to Not Steal the Spotlight In taking over a role originally played by Jimmy Nail, the rock star Sting takes a more subdued approach in “The Last Ship.” === As followers of Broadway news and obsessive watchers of the box office are well aware, there’s a new crew member aboard “The Last Ship.” Sting, the composer of the evocative score for this This is not a Broadway first. To goose the grosses, Billie Joe Armstrong, the frontman of the band Green Day, stepped into the role of St. Jimmy in the terrific rock opera That is of course because Sting is a veteran rock star with a mighty following, even if his glory years atop the charts, both with his band the Police and on his own, are some years in the rearview mirror. He also has experience as an actor, on film and on Broadway, where he played Mack the Knife in an ill-received and short-lived 1989 revival of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s But anyone expecting a strutting star turn (as Mr. Armstrong’s was) will be mightily disappointed. Sting’s role, Jackie White, the leader of a quixotic plan to reopen the chained-up shipyards and build one last ship as a symbolic gesture of defiance, is not the leading one in the show. Larger parts are played by Michael Esper, as Gideon Fletcher, the onetime discontented youth who has returned to claim the love he left behind 15 years before, and Rachel Tucker as that abandoned lass, now attached to another man, Aaron Lazar’s Arthur Millburn, who is trying to get the locals to accept that times have changed and that their best hope is working in the salvage business. One could argue that even Fred Applegate, as the priest who supports the daft plan, has a larger part to play. In truth, as portrayed by Sting, who received (and tastefully ignored) a round of entrance applause at the reviewed performance, Jackie seems a less pivotal figure in the musical than he did when Mr. Nail played the role. As a firebrand stoking discontent, Sting’s Jackie is distinctly cooler to the touch. His acting is capable and efficient, and he handles the wry humor in John Logan and Brian Yorkey’s book with a light touch, but Sting does not attempt the fiery intensity that characterized Mr. Nail’s interpretation. His Jackie seems a leader more by the quiet integrity of his advice than his animal spirits. The friend I brought was just happy to hear Sting’s distinctive voice again, and for that matter so was I. (The last time I heard it live was — yikes! — probably during the Sting’s mature voice fits smoothly into this category, and on the songs he leads. In the title tune and the rousing “Shipyard,” in which Jackie urges the townspeople to stick to their guns and insist on resurrecting the livelihood that’s the only one they’ve known, he sings with an arresting fervency that draws you in. Sting’s presence doesn’t alter the chemistry of the show in any significant way. He appears at times to be at pains to make sure it doesn’t. He is more an onlooker than a participant in the earthbound, stomping and rolling choreography of Steven Hoggett. And his more subdued approach to the role of Jackie almost seems to contain a faint air of apology. I pictured a thought bubble over his head saying, “Yes, it’s me, but I’m not the bloody point.” Which is perfectly true. Although it has its flaws, primarily in the somewhat tangled book, “The Last Ship” remains a musically entrancing show performed with grit and passion by an excellent cast. Why audiences haven’t warmed to it may have more to do with the narrowing of the Broadway audience’s tastes than anything else. An original musical with no familiar brand to exploit — particularly a show that doesn’t sell peppy uplift — has now become a quixotic, against-the-odds endeavor. This adds another layer of strange, sad symbolism to the central image of the show, that mighty vessel headed nowhere.