They are calling it a new Broadway musical. But that is a misnomer. Sting's "The Last Ship," which received its much-anticipated world premiere in Chicago on Wednesday night, is an old-fashioned grand opera of the most eloquent sort - awash in both turbulent emotions and intimate dramatic gestures. A true masterwork, it not only keens a ravishing dirge for a lost way of life, and the indomitable spirit of the working class as it continues to stagger through this post-industrial age. But as it spins an eternal tale of the tensions between fathers and sons (and yes, a "holy ghost" of sorts, too), as well as the ardor and disappointments of love, the opposing pull of home and "away," and the need for some form of faith along with ennobling work, it magnifies the human heartbeat, and captures a genuine sense of the yearning that keeps people going...
