Sheffield Theatres has been given the South Bank Sky Arts Award for new musical Standing at the Sky’s Edge.
The show, which has music and lyrics by Richard Hawley and a book by Chris Bush, saw off competition that included Sheffield Theatres’ Life of Pi and Jamie Lloyd Company’s Cyrano de Bergerac.
The award-winning show is about the lives of three Sheffield families across six decades. It was directed by Sheffield Theatres artistic director Robert Hastie, who said, “if 2020 had gone to plan, we’d be in the middle of remounting Standing at the Sky’s Edge in the Crucible, ahead of a run at the National Theatre.
"This award belongs to a vast number of people, first and foremost Richard Hawley and Chris Bush, two great artists and fine Sheffielders, in a city full of fine people and great artists. It also belongs to the passionate and dedicated staff and every single freelancer who played a vital role in bringing this story to the stage.
"Standing at the Sky’s Edge is a show about community, about bringing people together, about resilience and desperation and humour and being a neighbour and living in close proximity to other human beings. This is the kind of theatre we want to be making again and I can’t wait until we can do that, and welcome our loyal, supportive audiences back through our doors.”
This year, for the fourth time, Sheffield Theatres won Regional Theatre of the Year. Standing at the Sky’s Edge won the venue the Best Musical Production at the 2019 UK Theatre Awards, with Life of Pi winning a further four plus the Achievement in Technical Theatre at the Stage Awards and Best New Play at the WhatsOnStage Awards.
A special performance from Standing at the Sky’s Edge can be seen at the Awards ceremony at 8PM on 20 December (free to watch on Sky Arts, Freeview channel 11).