THE LAST SHIP: 10^th ANNIVERSARY REUNION CONCERT – 54 Below – New York, NY – November 4^th

Rock star/composer Sting is joined by members of the original cast of his musical The Last Ship for two reunion concerts at 54 Below. Tickets for both events sold out long ago. But you can live stream the event at 7 PM ET/4PM PT and catch all the action.

Amongst the cast members joining Sting are Michael Esper, Jamie Jackson, Sally Ann Triplett and Rachel Tucker.

A portion of the proceeds from the concerts and the livestream will benefit Project ALS. Aaron Lazar, who originated the role of Arthur Millburn, announced he was diagnosed with ALS aka Lou Gehrig’s disease earlier this year. These concerts are a celebration of him as well as the musical itself.

For livestream tickets and more information, please go here.

WAITING FOR GODOT  – Geffen Playhouse – Westwood, CA – November 6th – December 15^th

Samuel Beckett’s classic play is once again on stage in Los Angeles. This production, produced in association with Gare St Lazare Ireland, finds Rainn Wilson and Aasif Mandvi starring as Vladimir and Estragon – two men waiting endlessly for the arrival of Godot.

Joining them are Conor Lovett as Pozzo and Adam Stein as Lucky.

The role of Boy will be performed by Lincoln Bonilla and Jack McSherry (they will alternate performances). Judy Hegarty Lovett directs.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

ROUVALI LEADS JULIA WOLFE, STRAUSS & SIBELIUS  – New York Philharmonic – New York, NY – November 7-November 12^th

Life’s journey has inspired many a composer. This concert focuses on three different works that explore explorations of life at various ages.

The program opens with Julia Wolfe’s Fountain of Youth. By its name you know what part of life this represents.

Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs, a powerful work, makes it clear what stage of life Strauss explored with this work. Soprano Miah Persson will sing this incredibly moving work.

The concert closes with Sibelius’ celebration of his own 50^th birthday in his Fifth Symphony.

Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducts these four concerts.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

MUTI & THE CSO – Chicago Symphony Orchestra – Chicago, IL – November 8^th – November 9^th

Works by Chabrier, Donizetti, Falla and Verdi are on this program. But what makes these two concerts compelling is the world premiere of the Megalopolis Suite by Osvaldo Golijov. This is a suite of music from his wonderful score for the Francis Ford Coppola film Megalopolis.

Audiences didn’t exactly flock to see this movie, but they missed out. I personally loved the film and have played the score multiple times since seeing the film.

Golijov is a terrific composer and this CSO Commission will certainly showcase that to all who attend these concerts. This is a score that deserves attention and will hopefully find some love during awards season.

Riccardo Muti conducts.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

ISAIAH COLLIER & THE CHOSEN FEW – Soka Performing Arts Center – Aliso Viejo, CA – November 9th

Saxophonist/composer Collier is an artist who deftly joins jazz traditions with a unique blend of other styles including soul, gospel and funk. This concert will be focused on his latest release The Almighty – a 63-minute album that explores the role of spirituality in his life and by extension our own. It’s a terrific album that should be even more alive when performed live.

The chosen few joining Collier for this concert are Richard Gibbs III on piano, Jermain Paul on bass and Damien Reid on drums.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

This concludes our Best Bets: November 4th – November 10th. For readers in the United States, don’t forget to vote on Tuesday.

Enjoy your week!

Main Photo: Rachel Tucker and Aaron Lazar in The Last Ship on Broadway (Photo by Joan Marcus)

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“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)

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“He’s always finding new things to do and new ways to work and new challenges for himself,” she says by phone a few hours before a recent performance. “He’s still passionate about what he does. That’s really inspiring to watch. I hope I get to work as long as he has and to maintain that work ethic. He is an example to us all.”

Chances are McNamee will have a lengthy career.  Her arrival in The Last Ship comes with a show-stopping song called “If You Ever See Me Talking to a Sailor.” Meg declares her independence in the song, but there’s something else going on in her heart.

“I think her ability to hide her true feelings is a big part of her character,” McNamee says of Meg. “That’s what that song is about. She’s a bit of a mess inside and puts on a show for everyone.”

The show hides her true feelings of having her relationship with Gideon (Oliver Saville) suddenly come to an end when he chooses to explore life at sea for a not-insignificant number of years. And then he returns.

“She buries her vulnerability, but it comes out like a gale force wind when she first sees Gideon. She’s all or nothing. She’s either incredibly vulnerable or like a superwoman and never the twain shall meet.”

This touring version of The Last Ship is a significantly re-worked version of the show that opened (and closed rather quickly) on Broadway. McNamee has been on this new journey with the show for a couple years. But she never felt any pressure to “make it right.”

“I sort of treated it as a separate entity because I think if you put that pressure on yourself you are setting yourself up for a fall. My character has a completely different set of circumstances. I didn’t see the Broadway version. For Lorne Campbell, writing the book, there was that pressure to make the story more succinct and clearer and I think we’ve definitely done that.”

For McNamee this was the opportunity to be more a part of the creation of a new show rather than a tour of an already established one.

“It’s really exciting. You feel like you have a bit more ownership, I think,” she offers. “I know there was the Broadway version, but in my head I’ve originated the role because it’s a different story. We don’t have a lot of power ever as actors, but it is nice to be included and that doesn’t happen unless you are performing at the very start.”

Before being cast in the show she had to audition. Not just for producers, but for Sting. Luckily McNamee was given parameters for that audition.

“I didn’t have to spend hours going through my folder and pick the right song. We were told not to sound too musical theatre because they wanted a more folksy sound. I did August Winds from the show and If You Ever See Me Talking...”

Had she been given a choice of material outside of the show to use for her audition, McNamee had a few ideas.

“I’d like to say I would have sung Fields of Gold because that’s already in my repertoire or My Brother Lived in San Francisco. I might have sung that. Or maybe, change my mind again, there’s a folk song Water of Time which is about lovers that are parted. That’s a pretty good tune. Maybe a traditional Northern England folk song.”

That latter choice reflects that McNamee grew up less than an hour from where The Last Ship takes place in Wallsend, England.

“My actual town was a mining town and it suffered a similar obliteration in the ’80s as the shipbuilding community. I’m familiar with the taking away of industry and what happens when its heart is ripped out. I’ve lived through it so I can draw on that and can use it. All the communities in that part are aware of what has happened and have an affinity for one another.”

Though the show is set in the not-so-distance past, McNamee feels as though the show has a lot to say to present-day audiences about the power of raising one’s voice and, in particular, a community raising its voice.

“I think there are plenty of things that are happening to us without our permission. It’s that message of galvanizing the audience to rally together. We are many, they are few. There is strength in numbers. When people don’t lie down and take what they are dished out it’s an amazing thing. We do have power. I think the new generation that’s coming up is really open to that message which is very exciting.”

Before our conversation was over, I asked about something Sting once said about success.  He said, “Success always necessitates a degree of ruthlessness. Given the choice of friendship or success, I’d probably choose success.” Would she?

“I think I’d choose friendship because I think ultimately at the end of it all you would regret not having any friends around you. If you had your rights right around at the end of your life, the other stuff might not matter.”

It was then she hesitated and said, “Can I have both?”

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.

Main Photo: Frances McNamee and the company of The Last Ship (All photos by Matthew Murphy/Courtesy of Center Theatre Group)

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In 2013, rock musician/actor Sting released his first album of new material in a decade. It was a song cycle meant as part of a theatre piece. In 2014 the musical The Last Ship (also the name of the album) made is debut on Broadway. The touring production of the show just concluded its run at the Ahmanson Theatre and opens this week at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre. The musical will run there from February 20th to March 22nd.

A little backstory before getting into the show itself. When The Last Ship opened at the Neil Simon Theatre, Jimmy Nail was playing the role of Jackie White. Ticket sales weren’t quite what everyone had hoped and slightly more than two months after opening, Nail was replaced by Sting in an effort to boost the box office. Those efforts did not succeed and the last show of The Last Ship was on January  24, 2015 after a run of only 105 performances (not counting previews of which there were 29.)

Sting returns to the part for this tour (which will also include at stop at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre immediately after closing in Los Angeles.)

The Last Ship follows Gideon Fletcher (Oliver Savile) in Wallsend, North East England in 1986. He’s been away at sea for a decade-and-a-half. When he returns he finds he woman he loved, Meg Dawson (Frances McNamee) has moved on. He also discovers that the shipyard that gave the town its life and purpose is closing.  Jackie White (Sting) is a foreman who wants to see his men finish one last ship before that happens.

All the songs in the musical were written by Sting. The Last Ship features a new book by Lorne Campbell. The original book was written by John Logan and Brian Yorkey. Campbell is also the director of the show.

Here’s the good news. The show has been significantly reworked since its Broadway run. I didn’t see the show there ,but did attend yesterday’s opening night. The Last Ship has terrific songs, wonderful performances (and kudos to the casting director Beth Eden who put together not just a talented ensemble, but one that genuinely looks like they work in ship building in Northern England) and while it might be a tad long, it is still involving. The Last Ship is certainly far better than its history would suggest.

Once this mini-tour of The Last Ship is completed, Sting will begin a residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on May 22nd.

For more information, check out our interviews with Frances McNamee and Oliver Savile.

The Last Ship runs 2 hours and 40 minutes with one intermission.

For tickets go here.

Update: This post has been updated after seeing a performance of the show. 

2nd Update:  This post has been updated for its run in San Francisco and also includes links to interviews with  cast members Frances McNamee and Oliver Savile.

Photo: Oliver Savile and Sting in The Last Ship (Photo by Matthew Murphy/Courtesy of Center Theatre Group)

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One of Broadway’s go-to tenors, he’s making his Los Angeles cabaret debut Monday at Rockwell Table and Stage in Los Feliz. This will also make the debut of his new solo show, Aaron Lazar: From Broadway to Hollywood. Lazar, who relocated from New York to Los Angeles to raise a family and take a stab at television and film, spoke with me after a rehearsal for this show.

“Hollywood became this place of mystique when I decided to change career paths from medical school to theatre,” Lazar reveals. “You had to decide between Los Angeles and New York. My showcase was in New York and I stayed there. LA became this place I wanted to move to and I finally have. I never wanted to look back and say I wish I had tried LA. That was part one. Having a family was part two. The quality of life out here is so amazing. Plus pushing a stroller up and down stairs to make a subway is crazy.”

The show he is debuting at Rockwell is his second solo show. The first, “Look for Me in the Songs,” he said was the hardest thing he’s ever had to do. So how challenging is doing his sophomore show? “That’s a great question,” he says. “It’s certainly been challenging, but not nearly as difficult. The show is running about 75 minutes. There are 30 songs…16 full songs and pieces of 14 others. We’ll see what we learn from it. There is no place better to see what works and doesn’t than starting in smaller rooms. It’s scary, but that’s where all artists live.”

The overlap between the two shows is minimal, though stories and references to the man he calls his major influence, Stephen Sondheim, will be part of it. “I had been writing him since I was 19,” Lazar offers. “I’ve been corresponding with him for years and years. He writes you back. To get cast in the only ever revival of [A Little Night Music] and to get to work with Steve and go to his house and to get to know him – It doesn’t get better than that.”

When The Light in the Piazza was broadcast on PBS, Lazar was in the very demanding role of Fabrizio, the young Italian who falls in love with an American girl. “That was the pinnacle,” he says. “There is no need to overstate it. It’s like everything stopped. It’s one of those undeniable works of genius. I miss it.”

Whether he misses his time on the track throwing discus, he does find parallels between the discipline of the sport and the discipline of doing this show. “I think I settled on the throwing events in track because they were these very individual pursuits, it’s you against yourself. And I think a career as an artist is a lot the same thing. It’s you against your own demons. As an actor you have very little control. Your reps get you opportunities and you hopefully book the jobs. When you are between jobs, how do you define yourself? Cabaret takes you out of a character and puts you face to face with yourself and what you have to say and who you are. The faster you can get in touch with your authenticity and share that, the happier you are going to be as an artist.”

Main Photo Courtesy of Scott Mauro Entertainment

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