Sting's The Last Ship Docks at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, With Shaggy for Two Nights

Sting's musical The Last Ship plays Theatre Royal Drury Lane from Tuesday 22 September to Saturday 3 October 2026, a limited run of under two weeks. Sting himself plays Jackie White, the shipyard foreman, and the production's own announcement puts him in every performance. The gala and press night is Wednesday 23 September.

The story is Sting's own ground. His site says it is 'Rooted in his own childhood in the British shipbuilding town of Wallsend' and tells 'the moving story of a community of shipbuilders in the North East of England, faced with the closure of their shipyard – the heart of their existence'. Time Out puts the setting more bluntly: the decline of the Swan Hunter shipyard on the Tyne, written by a man whose father was a ship engineer.

Shaggy, then Lejaun Sheppard

The casting people are searching for is Shaggy. He plays the Wallsend Ferryman on 22 and 23 September only, because of prior commitments, and Lejaun Sheppard takes the role from 24 September to 3 October. Sting, quoted by LondonTheatre.co.uk, said Shaggy has 'a great sense of mischief, a great sense of joy, and he's also a natural actor'.

Around them: Declan Bennett as Gideon, Frances McNamee as Meg and Jackie Morrison as Peggy White, with Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong, Matt Beveridge, Joe Caffrey, Duane Gooden, Hannah Richardson and Adam Strong. Sting.com says the company numbers over 50.

A shipyard, a foreman, and the man who wrote both: Sting on stage at Drury Lane at every show.

The production

Barney Norris has written the book, Leo Warner directs, and 59 Studio designs set and video. Rebecca Howell choreographs, Loren Elstein designs costumes, Adam Bassett lights it, Tom Gibbons designs sound, Richard John is musical director and Rob Mathes is musical supervisor and orchestrator. The songs include 'Island of Souls', 'All This Time' and 'When We Dance'.

London is the last stop of a 2026 that has already taken this staging to Amsterdam, Brisbane, Paris and the Metropolitan Opera in New York in June, with a return to Amsterdam's Royal Theater Carré from 29 August to 13 September. Time Out records the longer history: a Broadway run that, in its words, 'didn't really work', even after Sting joined the cast to boost sales, and a 2018 UK production that started in Newcastle and toured the UK but 'never made it to London'. On that account, Drury Lane is the show's first London run.

Tickets are priced from £29.50 to £340, according to Time Out, and are sold through LW Theatres. Reviews follow the 23 September gala; this piece will be updated with them.