A spotlight on Sheffield Theatres

Jun 27

Sheffield Theatres’ three-auditoria complex attracts audiences of around 400,000 each year and is the largest producing theatre complex outside London, nationally recognised for its excellent production values, high calibre casting and world-class creative teams.

The Crucible and Lyceum theatres lit up at night-time. The Crucible is a brutalist building with a glass panelled room held up by concrete pillars and a panel above lit up in rainbow colours, which reads in capital letters: CRUC!BLE. The Lyceum is a — *Image: Sheffield Theatres by Smart Banda*

The diverse programme of bold and original produced work is complemented by the presentation of the best UK touring productions, Sheffield Theatres being a key venue for the UK’s network of commercial producers. Around 90 different productions are presented each year across the three theatres.

Work created at Sheffield Theatres feeds the sector, with shows made in Sheffield impacting the West End, UK and international touring, with Sheffield stories and voices reaching thousands in the UK and beyond.

Recent produced highlights include the international touring and West End hit musical, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, released as a film to 244 countries in 2021; the Olivier award-winning Life of Pi, and the celebrated Sheffield-set musical Standing at the Sky’s Edge, which transferred to the National Theatre in 2023, opening in the West End in February 2024.

Beyond the work on its stages, from activity with schools and the community, to its dementia friendly programme, Sheffield Theatres extends opportunities for all to engage in creativity, grow in confidence and participate. Its extensive talent development programme supports and nurtures the creative leaders of the future.

‘Under its four directors this century – Michael Grandage, Samuel West, Daniel Evans and Rob Hastie – the work has been of high quality and the audience steadfastly loyal.’
Michael Billington, The Guardian, Nov 2021

‘We should all attack our Wednesdays with the confidence of the Crucible’
Greg James, Radio 1, Nov 2021

‘Britain’s finest theatre'
Sir Ian McKellen in The Guardian July 2022

Production highlights

Standing at the Sky’s Edge

Olivier Award-winning Park Hill new musical featuring songs by Richard Hawley, with book by Chris Bush

First staged in 2019, following a sell-out run, Sky’s Edge won Best Musical Production at the UK Theatre Awards (2019) and the 2020 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Theatre. The musical returned to the Crucible for Christmas 2022 before transferring to the National’s Olivier Theatre in February 2023. Nominated for 8 Olivier Awards, and winning two including Best New Musical. The show transfers to the Gillian Lynne Theatre in the West End from February 2024.

*Image: The Company of Standing at the Sky’s Edge. Photo by Johan Persson*

Life of Pi

Winner of every major play award, and a West End theatrical phenomenon now on Broadway, and to return as part of a UK Tour.

Also beginning life in the Crucible in 2019, the show won 4 UK Theatre Awards (2019), Achievement in Technical Theatre at the Stage Awards, and Best New Play at the WhatsOnStage Awards 2020, before transferring to the Wyndham’s Theatre and winning 5 Olivier Awards (2022). Life of Pi returns home to Sheffield in August 2023 to begin its UK and Ireland Tour at the Lyceum.

Hiran Abeysekera as Pi kneels on a hospital bed next to Richard Parker the Tiger. Pi is dressed in a white vest and trousers and holds a whistle. The Tiger, a large orange puppet operated by a puppeteer, sits calmly next to the bed. — *Image: Hiran Abeysekera (Pi) and Richard Parker the Tiger in Life of Pi. Photo by Johan Persson.*

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie

The award-winning Sheffield-set musical phenomenon turned film released worldwide

Following a sensational start at the Crucible in 2017, Jamie transferred to the West End’s Apollo Theatre, enjoying a three-year run. Jamie has won 8 major theatre awards, including the UK Theatre and WhatsOnStage Awards for Best New Musical and the Attitude Culture Award 2017, and was nominated for 5 Olivier Awards.

The show enjoyed a sold-out tour of the UK and Ireland, with a second tour beginning September 2023. Jamie made its North American stage debut in January 2022 in a limited run at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie has been made into a movie, filmed in Sheffield by the city’s Warp Films, and released worldwide to critical acclaim by Amazon Prime in 2021.