Standing at the Sky's Edge, Gillian Lynne Theatre

"Written as a love letter to Sheffield and the city’s iconic Park Hill Estate, this 2023 Olivier Award-winning ‘Best New Musical’ is directed by Sheffield Theatres’ Artistic Director, Robert Hastie and features songs by the legendary Sheffield singer-songwriter, Richard Hawley.  With a hilarious and gut-wrenching book by Chris Bush, Standing at the Sky’s Edge charts the hopes and dreams of three generations over the course of six tumultuous decades, navigating universal themes of love, loss and survival. This new British musical is currently playing at the Gillian Lynne Theatre until 3 August 2024." Excerpt taken from Press Release

A spell-binding, emotional rollercoaster of intrigue, nostalgia and more. 'Standing at the Sky's Edge' was magical from start to finish. The story line, the acting, the music, the singing, the dancing, the juxtoposition, using the stories of three generations simultaneously, weaving in and out of people's daily lives as they strove to find, hold onto love and the idealism of dreams and the concept of togetherness amidst the reailty of daily life. This is a people story, a story about human interactions and emotions. making one ponder about the intricacies of life or even the simplicities, depending on how you perceive the world around you. A pondering that meandered ones thoughts down the path of many questions. What is it that makes us who we are? What drives us as human beings? What is love, true love and can it last forever? And why and how does it die and sometimes turn into a beast of pain, disillusionment and betrayal? How do our former experiences impact on how we view the world? How can we learn to integrate into places and experiences where we do not see a reflection of ourselves, where there is no representation of who we think we are? How far can we dare to dream, to pursue that dream whilst still holding onto love and the comfort it can offer us? Can we cross cultural divides and learn to accept, or do we simply refuse to adjust to what is comfortable for us, and not what is right? Is it possible to define who we are, and for us to remain in that awareness, without life and its politics and politricks eating away at us, until we become a former shadow of ourselves?

Standing at the Sky's Edge was a wonderful kaleidoscope of all of life's emotions. It touched on the many types of relationships we have open to us, with all their intricacies and yet I felt that at its most fundamental baseline it was simply about love, about wanting to be loved, about seeking love and how to hold onto love.

Standing At The Sky's Edge | Open Up Your Door Lauryn Redding’s rendition of ‘Open Up Your Door’

The singing - Captivating. Whether performed as a solo, or the whole cast, each song created its own particle, on the wave of life's tumultaneous and/or wonderful experiences. The cast - all performances were mesmerising as we dived into their worlds - seeking, searching, experiencing, drawn into worlds that seemed different and yet funnily enough, were also very similar.

The story line simply stilled us in our seats, as motionless we sat, entrenched in a story many of us all understood to some degree. We gasped, faces fell sullen at sadness, we laughed, we became still again and thoughtful some more, until the end where we exhaled...content, jubilant, sated. A perfect night out at the Theatre.

A deeply rich production. A deinite must see.

"Standing at the Sky’s Edge is a multi-award-winning production, winning ‘Best New Musical’ at the 2023 Olivier Awards with Sheffield singer-songwriter, Richard Hawley and Tom Deering also winning ‘Best Original Score and New Orchestrations’.  It was recently awarded the internationally recognised ‘Made in Sheffield’® accolade, the first time a theatre production has received this unique trademark.  Previously it has won the 2020 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Theatre and ‘Best Musical Production’ at the UK Theatre Awards in 2019."

Dates:   Until 3 August 2024   Press night: Wednesday 28 February 2024

Website:   SkysEdgeMusical.com

Address:  Gillian Lynne Theatre166 Drury LaneLondonWC2B 5PW

Assisted performances:

Audio Described PerformancesWednesday 13 March 2024, 2:30pmSaturday 13 April 2024, 7:30pm

Captioned PerformancesTuesday 26 March 2024, 7:30pmSaturday 13 July 2024, 2:30pm

BSL PerformancesThursday 23 May 2024, 7:30pmSaturday 22 June 2024, 2:30pm 

Tickets:   From £20

Box Office:   Book via lwtheatres.co.uk / call 020 3925 2998(lines open Monday to Saturday 10am – 5:30pm)Or book via nationaltheatre.org.uk / 020 7452 3000(lines open Monday to Saturday 9:30am – 8pm)

For Groups 10+ contact LW Groups at: groups@gillianlynnetheatre.co.uk

Running Time: 2 hours 50 minutes, including an interval

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Instagram: @skysedgemusical Twitter: @SkysEdgeMusicalFacebook: Standing At The Sky’s Edge – A New Musical