The Last Ship from Broadway to Newcastle: A feminist political musical for the Brexit era
Abstract
Sting’s musical, The Last Ship premiered on Broadway in 2014. Four years later, following a series of workshops at Northern Stage, the musical embarked on its UK tour featuring a number of revisions to its narrative and structure. What emerges from the revised production is a narrative, which places women at the centre through affording them agency and allowing them to occupy powerful, liminal spaces. Whilst The Last Ship remains a tale for the working classes, its UK revisions do well to reposition the central role of the women in this community. Through removing principal characters, which previously served to reinforce a patriarchal hierarchy, the fictional women of Wallsend now drive the plot, allowing for The Last Ship to communicate a morality tale, which echoes the ideologies of a feminist, post-Brexit era.Citation
Browne, S. (2018) The Last Ship from Broadway to Newcastle: A feminist political musical for the Brexit era, Studies in Musical TheatrePublisher
IntellectJournal
Studies in Musical TheatreAdditional Links
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/intellect/smt/2018/00000012/00000003/art00009Type
Journal articleLanguage
enISSN
1750-3159ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1386/smt.12.3.377_1
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