Sting to star in musical based on his childhood next spring at St. Paul's Ordway

Sting will sail into St. Paul next spring to star in his musi­cal "The Last Ship" at the Ord­way Center for the Per­form­ing Arts. The Tony Award-nomi­nated musi­cal will run for two weeks be­gin­ning in A­pril.

"I saw this show on Broad­way, and I'm thrilled that Sting is going to star in it here," said Ord­way Ar­tis­tic Director Rod Kaats. "I'm ea­ger to share this musi­cal with a world-class per­form­er with Min­ne­so­ta audi­ences."

St. Paul is one of five U.S. cit­ies to host the show, Kaats said.

"The Last Ship" is a semi-au­to­bi­o­graph­i­cal sto­ry draw­ing from Sting's child­hood in Wallsend, Eng­land. It centers on the col­lapse of the ship­build­ing in­dus­try and the ef­fects that a ship­yard clo­sure has on its com­muni­ty.

The show re­ceived mixed re­views when it op­ened. Critics praised Sting's score but were con­fused by com­pet­ing plot lines in the sto­ry. The ver­sion com­ing to the Ord­way has a new book by Lorne Camp­bell, who will also di­rect.

The musi­cal de­buted at the Bank of America The­atre in Chi­ca­go in 2014 be­fore mov­ing to Broad­way. Af­ter a four-month run, the show closed be­cause of slump­ing tick­et sales. In 2015 it was nomi­nated for two Tony Awards for best ori­gi­nal score and best or­ches­tra­tions.

Broad­way at the Ord­way sub­scrib­ers can add "The Last Ship" to their sub­scrip­tion. Re­main­ing sin­gle tick­ets will go on sale this fall. Prices start at $75.