PRINCIPAL CASTING ANNOUNCED FOR STING’S DEBUT MUSICAL
The Last Ship
Newcastle Northern Stage
Monday 12th March – Saturday 7th
April 2018
Joe McGann, Charlie Hardwick, Richard Fleeshman
and Frances McNamee join production
Principal casting has been
announced for the UK premiere of The
Last Ship – the acclaimed musical by the internationally renowned musician
Sting – which is to premiere in the UK when it opens at Northern Stage
in Newcastle on 12 March 2018.
The production has a
TONY-nominated original score and lyrics composed by Sting. It will play a
4-week season in Newcastle before embarking on a major UK & Ireland Tour.
The show is directed by Lorne Campbell, the artistic director
of Northern Stage and has set design by the Tony Award-winning 59 Productions – team behind the video
design for the 2012 London Olympic Games.
The casting of Joe McGann (Jackie White), Charlie
Hardwick (Peggy White), Richard Fleeshman (Gideon Fletcher) and Frances
McNamee (Meg Dawson) has today
been announced.
Joe McGann, perhaps
best known for his lead role as Charlie Burrows in the comedy series The Upper
Hand, has had a wide career spanning theatre, television and film. Theatre
credits include Elf (Plymouth Theatre Royal/ Bord Gais Energy Theatre, Dublin,
Dominion Theatre, West End, and Lowry, Salford); The Rise and Fall of Little
Voice (UK Tour); Calendar Girls (three UK tours), Olivier! (London Palladium),
Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof (UK Tour, 2008), Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls
(ATG UK Tour, 2006).
Charlie Hardwick played Val Pollard from 2004 to 2015 and again in 2017
in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale. For this role, she won the 2006 British Soap
Award for Best Comedy Performance. Stage credits include Hyem (Theatre
503/Northern Stage) and Double Lives (Live Theatre).
Richard Fleeshman is a familiar face on our stage and screens having been acting since
the age of 12 when he played the role of Craig Harris in Coronation Street for
four years. A talented singer-songwriter, Richard’s stage roles include Sam
Wheat in Ghost the Musical, a part he originated and played in the West End on
Broadway, Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls (UK Tour) and Bobby
Strong in Urinetown (original West End production).
Frances McNamee is currently appearing alongside Kelsey Grammer in Big Fish (The Other Palace). Other
stage credits include The Mother (Tricycle),
Love’s Labour’s Lost, Love’s Labour’s
Won (RSC), Punishment
Without Revenge (Arcola/Theatre Royal Bath/Belgrade Coventry), Pride and
Prejudice (Regent’s Park), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Royal and
Derngate), The Borrowers (Northern
Stage), Epsom Downs (Salisbury Playhouse), The Phoenix of Madrid, The Surprise of Love (Theatre
Royal Bath) and Les Misérables
20th Anniversary Gala Performance (West End). Her film credits
include Love in Fifteen Minutes.
Jimmy Nail,
who was to take the role of Jackie White, is no longer performing in The Last
Ship. He said: “I was very much looking forward to appearing in Sting’s ‘The
Last Ship’, particularly here in my home city. Sadly that’s not to be. I would
like to thank the production in allowing FACT, the charity of which I’m a
patron, to benefit from the planned gala charity event. To anyone who has
purchased a ticket, please, go see the show and give this vessel the launch it
so deserves. You’ll hear some of the finest musical works ever composed for the
stage.”
 |
| Sting and producer Karl Sydow. Photo Mark Savage |
Karl Sydow, producer of The
Last Ship, said: “After protracted
negotiations carried out in good faith we regret to announce the production’s
offer of employment to Jimmy Nail has been withdrawn. All at The Last
Ship thank him for his generosity and enormous contribution during what has
been an eight year journey.”
 |
| Sting and director Lorne Campbell. Photo Mark Savage |
Lorne Campbell, Northern Stage’s Artistic Director said, “I am delighted to be welcoming Joe McGann,
Charlie Hardwick, Richard Fleeshman, Frances McNamee and the rest of the
company to Northern Stage for The Last Ship. Alongside some wonderful old
friends of the company, we welcome some
remarkable new performers from across the U.K. We are all hugely excited to
move into rehearsal and to bring this incredible score and epic story to
audiences across the UK and Ireland.”
The Last Ship,
which was initially inspired by Sting’s 1991 album The Soul Cages and his
own childhood experiences, tells the story of a community amid the demise of
the shipbuilding industry in Tyne and Wear, with the closure of the Swan
Hunter shipyard.
 |
| Newcastle's Northern Stage |
When a sailor named Gideon Fletcher
returns home after seventeen years at sea, tensions between past and future
flare in both his family and his town. The local shipyard, around which the
community has always revolved, is closing and no-one knows what will come next,
only that a half-built ship towers over the terraces. With the engine fired and
pistons in motion, picket lines are drawn as foreman Jackie White and his
wife Peggy fight to hold their community together in the face of the gathering
storm.
This personal,
political and passionate new musical from multiple Grammy Award winner Sting,
is an epic account of a family, a community and a great act of defiance. The
Last Ship features an original score with music and lyrics by Sting as well as
a few of his best-loved songs; Island of Souls, All This Time and When We
Dance. It is the proud story of when the last ship sails.
The Last Ship is produced by
Northern Stage in association with Karl Sydow and Kathryn Schenker. The performances in Newcastle are sponsored by North P&I Club. North is a
world leading mutual marine insurance group.
On The Web:
#TheLastShip
2018 TOUR DATES
Monday 12 March – Saturday 7 April
NORTHERN STAGE
www.northernstage.co.uk
| 0191 230 5151
Monday 9 – Saturday 14 April
LIVERPOOL PLAYHOUSE
everymanplayhouse.com | 0151 709 4776
Monday 16 – Saturday 21 April
THE NEW ALEXANDRA, BIRMINGHAM
atgtickets.com/Birmingham | 0844 871 7647
Tuesday 24 – Saturday 28 April
ROYAL & DERNGATE, NORTHAMPTON
royalandderngate.co.uk | 01604 624 811
Monday 30 April – Saturday 5 May
LEEDS GRAND THEATRE
leedsgrandtheatre.com | 0844 848 2700
Monday 7 – Saturday 12 May
NOTTINGHAM PLAYHOUSE
nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk | 0115 941 9419
Monday 14 – Saturday 19 May
WALES MILLENIUM CENTRE, CARDIFF
wmc.org.uk | 029 2063 6464
Monday 4 – Saturday 9 June
BORD GAIS ENERGY THEATRE, DUBLIN
bordgaisenergytheatre.ie | +353 1 677 7999
Tuesday 12 – Saturday 16 June
FESTIVAL THEATRE, EDINBURGH
edtheatres.com | 0131 529 6000
Monday 18 – Saturday 23 June
THEATRE ROYAL GLASGOW
atgtickets.com/Glasgow | 0844 871 7647
Monday 25 – Saturday 30 June
YORK
THEATRE ROYAL
yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
| 01904 623 568
Tuesday 3 – Saturday 7 July
THE LOWRY, SALFORD
thelowry.com | 0843 208 6000
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