Broadway show “The Last Ship,” which was composed by rocker Sting, is set to sail away from Broadway later this month.
The musical will batten down its hatches on Jan. 24, despite Sting‘s best efforts to boost ticket sales. In a rare play to grow awareness, the lead singer of The Police actually joined the cast in November as dock foreman. Clearly, the outside-the-box maneuver didn’t move the needle enough to keep the show afloat. OK, that’s enough boating metaphors for one post — for now.
Producers Jeffrey Seller and Kathryn Schenker shared the news in a Monday night email, sent to members of the production and supporters, The New York Times reported.
“We have been bewildered and saddened by our inability to sustain an audience for this musical that we deeply love,” the producers wrote. “There are no easy explanations.”
The producers added that they were “heartened that we have been able to share this work with 140,000 theatergoers since our start last summer in Chicago and that Sting’s herculean participation on stage since December 9th has lengthened our run, filled the theater with enthusiastic audiences and helped to burnish ‘The Last Ship’ in the canon of beautiful, original new musicals. Our ability to persevere has helped ensure a viable future for the show in licensing.”
In early December, with Sting aboard, “The Last Ship’s” box office sales nearly doubled, The Times said. But last week, when other Broadway musicals were busy setting box office records — such as Bradley Cooper’s “The Elephant Man” — “The Last Ship” grossed $953,165, which is 77 percent of the maximum possible amount, with 83 percent of seats full.
Sting‘s final performance was previously set to be Jan. 24 — now the show won’t go on without him. A rep for Sting did not immediately respond to TheWrap‘s request for comment.