Sting Didn’t Take Paul Simon’s Broadway Advice
Sting's decision to temporarily join the cast of his Broadway musical, 'The Last Ship,' appears to helped its fortunes at the box office. However, Sting said that he might not be onstage right now if he had listened to his friend and occasional touring partner Paul Simon.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal in the video above, Sting recalls Simon telling him, “If things start going badly, don’t get anywhere near it. Don’t tie yourself to the front of that train. It'll kill you.”
Simon's 'The Capeman,' a Broadway musical about a real-life murderer in 1959 New York, was beset with all sorts of problems. It received savage reviews and closed after only 68 performances in 1998, losing more than $11 million.
Still, Sting said that for all the problems 'The Last Ship' has encountered, he started the project knowing that it would be an uphill climb. "It's a difficult challenge, but I wouldn't have it any other way," he noted. "I knew going in this was not a shoo-in as a success. It's a difficult subject. Doing a new, original musical is almost never done. You either do 'Beverly Hills Cop: The Musical' or 'Every Breath You Take: The Jukebox Musical.' I'm not interested. I want to do something difficult. If I'm gonna fall off a ladder, I don't want to fall off the bottom rung."
Even though he's the show's co-creator, as well as a rock legend, Sting quickly found out that his pedigree doesn't matter when he's backstage. As he told 'Live With Kelly & Michael' yesterday, "I only had two days of rehearsal, and I was thrown in an elevator shaft because there's so much traffic going on, so much moving parts [onstage], actual steel plates moving around, welding tools, giant guys ... dancing. So you just try not to get in the way."
See the Yearbook Photos of Sting and Other Rock Stars