BroadwayWorld recently kicked off a brand new feature series spotlighting the best and brightest songwriters on Broadway and beyond with their own personally chosen quintet of songs that hold special meaning to them, titled 5 SONGS BY....
Today we continue the 5 SONGS BY... series by talking to 2015 Tony Award nominee and world renowned Grammy Award-winning recording artist Sting all about his score for the recent mainstage musical THE LAST SHIP, for which he composed both music and lyrics. Besides describing the impetus behind the show itself and many of the standout musical selections, Sting also spotlights his influences and overall creative process in crafting the at turns propulsive, jaunty and delicately romantic score for the new musical as well as sheds some light on material that did not make it into the final version of the show, directed by Tony Award winner Joe Mantello. More information on THE LAST SHIP is available at the official site here. "Shipyard" "'Shipyard' started as a list of names of people I knew from my town - a lot of them being people who actually worked in the shipyard in my town. And, so, I just started with the names and told people what they did - and what their dreams were; what their hopes and fears for the future were. That was the first song that I wrote for THE LAST SHIP and it was very long! It was about ten characters and I think we finally ended up with about three of them in the actual play. I always say good work is never wasted, though. In this case, the lyrics came first, but there are really no rules about songwriting generally - there are many ways to cut that pie, you know. For me, 'Shipyard' was sort of the opener in deciding who the characters were and what they did - so, it all just began with a series of names. That was the real opener of the show for me - and it could have been the opener of the actual show, too, I think."
Photo Credit: Walter McBride
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