Who will play Sting on Broadway next year? That was the burning question posed - sort of - Wednesday night at the Public Theater, as the pop veteran launched a 10-night run of benefit concerts introducing songs "inspired by" his first musical, The Last Ship, due to arrive on the Main Stem in fall 2014. Billed as An Evening With Sting: The Last Ship, the show placed the international star in the Public's 260-seat Anspacher Theater, where he explained to an audience including fan-club members and lottery winners how he conceived his virgin project as a musical-theater composer/lyricist. Set in a Northeast England, where he grew up, it features as its hero a man who is, like Sting, the son of a shipyard worker, who leaves his small community and remains "very ambivalent about where he comes from..."

For the first and only time, Sting will perform songs from his new album, The Last Ship, over 10 concerts to benefit The Public Theater. The Public will offer a limited number of FREE tickets via a lottery system for AN EVENING WITH STING, September 25 through October 9 at 8:00 p.m. Beginning at 5:30 p.m., persons can enter the lottery by filling out an entry card with their name and indicating if they want one or two tickets. If two tickets are requested, both attendees must be present. At 6:00 p.m., the lottery winners’ names will be selected. All winners must be present at the time of the drawing. Entry cards will not be given out before 5:30 p.m. and the winners will be selected via random lottery. A minimum of 10 free tickets will be given out at each performance, excluding the special Sting.com fan club concert on October 2...