The times, they were a-changin’ back in the 1970s, when a young Geordie from Newcastle upon Tyne was coming of age. The industry that had kept the lights on for generations was on the verge of collapse. In 2013, now world-renowned under the mononym Sting, the former Gordon Sumner conjured up old memories in the simply yet piercingly crafted ballads of the album The Last Ship. Tracks like “Practical Arrangement,” “Dead Man’s Boots,” and the gently comic “The Night The Pugilist Learned How to Dance” were freestanding novellas in themselves; “August Winds” held time in lyrical suspension. Who needed an overarching narrative? Yet in 2014, The Last Ship docked on Broadway as a full-fledged musical. In The New York Times, Charles Isherwood had high praise for “a seductive score that ranks among the best composed by a rock or pop figure for Broadway,” even as he dismissed the stage action as “dramatically landlocked—like a ship without a crew.” The die was cast. Though Sting joined the cast for the show’s final weeks, it went dark after a mere four months, $15 million in the red. Happily, though, that was not the end. Fortified with a new book and extra songs, with Sting heading the cast, The Last Ship is now on an international tour with ports of call in Amsterdam (January 14 to February 1), Paris (February 18 to March 8), Brisbane (April 9 to May 3), New York (June 9 to 14, at the Metropolitan Opera House), and a reprise in Amsterdam (August 28 to September 13). Bon voyage! —Matthew Gurewitsch