It doesn’t get more different than to go from playing Whizzer in William Finn’s Falsettos to playing Gideon Fletcher in Sting’s The Last Ship. In one you’re a young man in a relationship with a man who has a kid. In the other, you’re from North East England in a community of shipbuilders. That’s precisely what Oliver Savile did when he joined the touring company of The Last Ship.
“I mean it couldn’t be more opposite,” he said by phone last week. “I literally finished on a Sunday and started this on the Monday. I had to wipe the slate completely clean. Whizzer is strong and knows who he is, but Gideon is working class. He can’t control his emotions or doesn’t know how to function with emotions.”
In Sting’s musical, currently finishing its run at The Ahmanson Theatre, Gideon Fletcher leaves town and his girlfriend, Meg (Frances McNamee), behind. Years and years go by before he returns to Wallsend where he hopes to rekindle his relationship with Meg.
“He was a young lad,” he says of Gideon, “growing up on a shipyard and not wanting to do what generations have done before him and having this absolute urge to leave and then leaving. Then asking what do I do now? What brought him back was his dad’s funeral. He realized he was doing the wrong thing.”
Even as a last-minute addition to the show (when the actor who had done the UK tour was not available), Savile has had a front-row seat to seeing how Sting works as both a co-star and as someone constantly working to get The Last Ship just right.
“Tomorrow we’re taking a song out and in a couple weeks it might go back in. It’s trying to tell the right story. Sting is generous and his music is the heart and soul of this show. I get to sing 5-6 songs of his. And he’s watching from the wings. People say you shouldn’t meet your heroes, but he’s absolutely an exception. You forget who you are working with.”
There comes a point in most shows when they are frozen – meaning that no new changes will be made. That clearly hasn’t been the case here.
“I think of it as a bit of a gift really,” he says. “When do you ever get to be on a show when it’s constantly changing and people are trying to make it better? We’ve done four weeks in Los Angeles and we’ve got a few cuts and a whole tech rehearsal in the afternoon. Sting says art is an ever-evolving entity. Why should it stay the same?”
Being in America as England figures out Brexit and America tries to figure itself out has proven to be interesting timing for Savile and the show.
“It’s a great time for the show to be over here. It’s really relevant now and for both our countries. There’s a lot to learn from the show about sticking together and community and whoever is in charge at the top. It’s terrifying really. We don’t have much say, but what we do have is each other.”
In addition to The Last Ship and Falsettos, Savile has appeared in Wicked, Cats, Les Miserables and Company. But he’s hard-pressed to figure out which show is most like him.
“I never been asked that before. To be fair, none of them really. Fiyero was a bit of a cocky prince. Enjolras decided to lead a revolution.”
At that moment I could hear a suggestion from someone else in the room.
“My fiancé suggested Rum Tum Tugger. A bit of a showoff I bet.” He then let out a very big laugh.
As I did with his co-star McNamee, I asked Savile about Sting’s quote, “Success always necessitates a degree of ruthlessness. Given the choice of friendship or success, I’d probably choose success.”
“I’d have to disagree slightly. Friendship has been a sort of springboard, not to my success, but to my well-being, which has lead to my success. My friends are very important to me and that includes my fiancé and my dad and my friendship group. I understand what he’s saying, but I’ve never felt that. I’d like to think I surround myself with people who want me to be the best I can be.”
The Last Ship continues at the Ahmanson Theatre through February 16th. The show then moves to the Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco from February 20th to March 22nd. Additional stops are scheduled in Washington, D.C., St. Paul and Detroit.
Photo: Frances McNamee and Oliver Savile in The Last Ship. (Photo by Matthew Murphy/Courtesy of Center Theatre Group)