The Coaly Tyne

It's a strange old job this actoring lark. We spend our days slogging away with castings, learning sides and trying to keep the tools sharp, but every now and then all the hard work pays of and you get the chance to work on a unique project.


Got a call from my wonderful agent Mia Thomson saying I had a meeting for a weeks workshop up in Newcastle, working on a new project "The Last Ship". It was for a casting director I've worked for before, and oh yeah and it was being written by Sting. You can imagine, one minute your playing Henry VIII and the next you auditioning for a bloke who wrote the sound track to your youth.

Did I mention the learning sides thing, half a rain forest came over the email, thankfully Rehearsal 2 on the ipad has saves me so much printing, fantastic app.

Long story short, recalled, got the gig playing Mickey. Up to Newcastle and the Live Theatre. 

Through the whole casting process I did catch myself thinking, holy crap .. that's Sting.

He and the producer Jeffery Seller had assemble an astounding creative team, Brian Yorkey on book, Rob Mathes as musical supervisor, his wonderful assistant Dan Lipton and the great Joe Mantello directing. Wonderful.

The cast wasn't half bad either, Emma Williams, Jimmy Nail, Val McLane and Julian Forsyth and those were just a few I hadn't worked with before. At this point I have to send shout out to Hal Fowler, GSA reunion and Mark Roper who played the Governor in Jailhouse Rock, fantastic to see you again boys.

The intensity of work was crazy, by 20:00 on the first day we had learned the show musically and by dinner time on day two we had table read the script and were getting down to cutting and rearranging. This sort of process is why I love what I do, everyone on the project working their arses off to see a fledgling project grow and take wing.

To be honest, during the week I'd occasionally look across the floor and see Sting just sitting there, riffin away on his guitar, WOW. 

Then the band turned up on day 3, Ira Coleman his current bass player, the astounding Kathryn Tickell on pipes and violin. Peter and Mike also joined the line up and the amazing Julian Sutton on squeezebox.

The week culminated in two "Script in Hand" development performances to an invite only audience. 

It worked! 

The story was clear and engaging, the songs soared and everyone was wrapped up in this story of love and struggle set against the backdrop of the Wallsend shipyard closure in the 1980's.

Where it goes from here, who knows, but what a privilege to have worked on it with such wonderful people.

the scenery on the way back wasn't half bad either,

Laters.