Arriving in the West End after an Olivier-Award winning run at The National Theatre, this very British musical oozes heart, clever humour, and Richard Hawley's stirring, soulful tunes.
In Robert Hastie's brilliantly choreographed production, an impressive ensemble cast conjure the working class community of Sheffield's Park Hill estate, which in 1997 became Europe's largest listed structure.
Chris Bush's poignant, funny book deftly interweaves social history - Thatcherism, The Miner's strike, immigration, gentrification - with the intimate, personal stories of three families from different eras occupying the same flat.
It's a fully-realised play with poignant, uplifting songs, but when they come - as either voices singled out on microphones, or soaring full cast numbers - they feel seamless.
In the 1960 timeline we meet young couple Harry and Rose, excited at getting the keys to a brand new flat as their steel town booms. By the late 1980s when teenager Joy and her family arrive fleeing conflict in Liberia, idealism has curdled into neglect and the estate is dangerous and run-down.
But by 2015, regeneration has ushered in the middle-classes like Laura Pitt-Pulford's vulnerable Londoner Poppy whose fresh start is sparked by heartache. Themes of home, belonging, and lives blighted by social circumstance, reverberate as they often simultaneously occupy rooms and tables.
Mel Lowe's ebullient Connie is both estate agent and narrator, who links them all in ways that become apparent. Only one plot twist feels a little contrived and unbelievably unlucky as gritty reality meets heart-breaking hope.
With her Ottolenghi dishes and wine habit Poppy could be unsympathetic but in Pitt-Pulford's performance her search for self acceptance and belonging is every bit as moving as steel worker Harry's (Joel Harper-Jackson) anger and disillusion, and Joy's (Elizabeth Ayodele) touching romance with local boy Jimmy.
As Poppy's errant Scouse lover, Lauryn Redding brings the house down with her full-throated rendition of “Open Up Your Door”.
Built in the 70s - like the National Theatre - the Gillian Lynne is the perfect setting for a show about a Brutalist estate, and designer Ben Stones' tri-level broad set populates the space with the band visible on the upper tiers, alongside Park Hill's famous graffiti 'I Love You Will U Marry Me?'
Get hold of a ticket if you can.
Standing at The Sky's Edge runs at The Gillian Lynne Theatre, Covent Garden until August 3.
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