Standing At The Sky's Edge wins Best New Musical at Olivier Awards with tribute to Sheffield by Richard Hawley

The Steel City’s home grown smash hit musical about the iconic Park Hill flats has gone from its premiere at Sheffield Theatres in 2019 to last night winning both Best New Musical and Best Original Score at the world-class awards ceremony last night.

The story of three generations unfolding at the unmistakable brutalist housing estate was written by Sheffield playwright Chris Bush and sound tracked by Hawley, who supplied the music and lyrics for Standing At The Sky’s Edge, including some of his back catelogue and new orchestrations.

On stage last night with Tom Deering and much of the cast, Hawley dedicated the honour to “fallen comrades” including bass player Steve Mackey from Pulp “who we lost a month ago” after meeting on the first day of infant school.

He added: “We stayed friends and brothers all the way through, I will miss him my whole life.”

He also referenced the legendary Park Hill graffiti in a tribute to the Steel City, saying simply: “Sheffield, we love you, will you marry us?”

Playwright Chris Bush also said: “The world is only changed by the stories that are told about it … If we can’t find ourselves in those stories, if we don’t know where to look for them, if we can’t participate in their telling, we’re not just being denied access to art but being denied access to the world. And we might start thinking that the world isn’t for us and it is – it’s for all of us.”

Ahead of the award ceremony, held on Sunday at the Royal Albert Hall, Sky’s Edge was nominated for a total of eight awards.

The stage show premiered in Sheffield in 2019 before transferring to London in 2023. It is the latest production from the city to win major acclaim. Everyone’s Talking About Jamie, which was also set in Sheffield and developed by writers and producers in the city, took the country by storm and was later made into a feature film, which was premiered in Sheffield.