Standing at the Sky’s Edge is at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London’s West End for a limited season, with tickets from £20 (just don’t expect your interval drinks at Sheffield prices…)
Stepping into the Gillian Lynne Theatre, your surroundings are immediately reminiscent of Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre where Standing at the Sky’s Edge had its world premiere in 2019. There are even echoes of Park Hill’s Brutalism, too, in its concrete stairwells and walkways evoking those famous ‘Streets in the Sky’. With seating stretching around almost three quarters of the stage, the West End theatre’s 60-foot revolve adds to this sense of immersion in the show’s setting. The band play on the upper level, while Ben Stone’s set design and Mark Henderson’s intricate lighting cleverly facilitate the intertwined lives of three families in one flat across six tumultuous decades.
Since transferring to the National Theatre and then the West End, Standing at the Sky’s Edge has received widespread critical acclaim, not only shining a light on a city that rarely shouts about its many wonderful qualities, but also unearthing the struggles of living through rising unemployment amidst the pit closures and steel industry privatisation in Thatcher’s Britain.
At the emotional heart of that story are Rose, Jimmy and Joy played respectively by Rachel Wooding, Samuel Jordan (both exceptionally talented returning cast members) and Mya Fox-Scott, who was covering for Elizabeth Ayodele on Friday 7th March and gave one of the evening’s most convincing and heart-breaking performances. These three characters paint us a vivid picture of everyday life in Park Hill from the late 1960s through to the early 2000s, drawing tears and laughter as they find and lose jobs, homes, family, friends, and lovers on their own street in the sky.
A few slightly less than convincing accents aside, the entire 26-strong cast were a joy to watch and even more so to hear; the range of incredible voices took Richard Hawley’s soaring music and lyrics, arranged and orchestrated by Tom Deering, to new heights. Moments of harmonisation raised goosebumps on more than one occasion, and Sharlene Hector deserves a special mention in the role of Grace, whose vocals in the eponymous opening number of the second act were nothing short of breath-taking.
They all perhaps had to work a little harder to earn the audience’s warmth and amusement that was so evident watching the show back home, but the standing ovation in the stalls was testament to Chris Bush’s honest and humorous writing, Robert Hastie’s sensitive direction, and the achievements of the whole cast and creative team in continuing to smash this gorgeous, evocative, thoughtful musical out of the park. It makes you proud to live and love in Sheffield.
