Standing at the Sky's Edge
Gillian Lynne Theatre

THERE is such joy in this piece that it’s possible to get carried away by the sheer optimism and exuberance of it. That makes the concomitant howl of despair all the harder to bear.

This award-winning musical, with songs from the genius of modern-day bard Richard Hawley, spans six decades. The post-war years of the 1950s bring irrepressible hope that working-class folk are to be rewarded with better lives, in the form of swish new flats, in their “streets in the sky.”

Loving couple Rose (Rachael Wooding, a breathtaking talent) and Harry (Joel Harper-Jackson, in a sensitive portrayal of a broken man) frolic in their new space: Sheffield’s Park Hill estate, a 1,000-flat complex, inspired by the brutalist work of architect Le Corbusier. Their slum days are over, there are all mod cons to enjoy, a blissful married life beckons, with Harry boasting he will be the youngest foreman at the steelworks.

Decades are deftly intertwined, as the flat’s diverse occupants veer between confidence in their brave new world and desperate searches for refuge.

Joy has escaped from Liberia’s bloody civil war with her panicking relatives. I was fortunate to see understudy Mya Fox-Scott take on this demanding role, and she excelled, as we witnessed her transformation from awkward teenager to confident young woman.

Later years show us Poppy (Laura Pitt-Pulford) buying the revamped flat, in retreat from a failed love affair. Her mother frets: “Will you be able to get Ocado up here?”, a slice of script that superbly sets both era and class.

Hawley’s music is transcendent, and fulfils his desire that this would not be “a happy la-la-la sort of musical — there’s still some edge in our society.”

There’s an aural theme of light, with As the Dawn Breaks opening and closing the show. In Coles Corner, the plaintive “Don’t let the shadows hold back the dawn,” is followed by “There’s a storm a-comin’” — the latter reprised in the brutal brutalist years, when Thatcherism devastates the families’ lives.

This is both a rousing, spirit-lifting ballad of resistance and fortitude, and a splenetic indictment of politicians who promise heaven and ignore the hell it can become.

TV soaps should heed this magnificent narrative. Their melodramas are driven almost entirely by incident, yet this story mirrors the fortunes and failings of ordinary people. They come to rely on themselves, and on one another.

E M Forster did it well, in A Room with a View: “I don’t care what I see outside. My vision is within! Here is where the birds sing! Here is where the sky is blue!”

Richard Hawley’s rendition mends all broken hearts: “The place for me and you is here with no other.”

Runs until August 3. Tickets: lwtheatres.co.uk