Dancing in the Streets at the Lyceum Theatre Sheffield Review
Dancing in the Streets
Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield
3 June 2016
Reviewed by Jenny Bray
This show was held at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield. The Lyceum is in a square in the centre of Sheffield that also contains the Crucible. It is surrounded by pubs, restaurants and hotels in what is now a very cosmopolitan looking area of the city centre.
I found it surprisingly easy to park nearby considering it is in the city centre. The Lyceum have an agreement with the local Q Parks car park on Charles Street to do discounted parking for theatre goers so I drove straight there rather than look around for any other parking. The Q Park is a large, enclosed and secure car park that felt very safe. From there it’s only a short walk to the Lyceum, which is a grand looking building with lovely old frontage. Upon entering the building the box office is immediately in front of you. Once I’d collected our tickets they advised us which door to enter the auditorium through. However, we opted to pop to the bar first, which has a number of alcoholic and soft drinks on offer. There is also a snack bar selling sweets and chocolates. All the staff were friendly and welcoming.
The show is a tribute to Motown music. It isn’t actually a theatrical show as such but is a musical tribute of the main Motown artists from the late 60s, 70s and early 80s. The artists and bands that were covered included The Four Tops, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Lionel Ritchie, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas and Edwin Starr. The show is over 2 hours of music split with an interval in the middle. It is sold as being, ‘all killer, no filler’ and delivers on this with hit after hit. The music changes are smooth. They often change from the males performing to the females performing with some duets thrown in inbetween. This is combined with several sparkly outfit changes (male and female), mainly when the tribute artist was changing.
As a musical tribute, the backdrop was 3 large black and white pictures and the background to the stage is, from left to right, the saxophonist/flutist, the guitarist, the drummer, the bassist and the keyboard player. There are seven singers who host the show, 4 male and 3 female. Unusually none are traditional ‘leads’ and they all take centre stage for different songs throughout the show. All the vocalists were strong singers and performed all the songs really well although a couple of the males really stood out.
The show was very energetic and they had the audience up on their feet a lot during the show. The choreography was great and the enthusiastic dancing on stage really helped encourage the atmosphere amongst the audience. There were noticeable noises of approval when several songs started, including ‘Tears of a clown’, ‘Baby Love’ and ‘I heard it through the grapevine’. Most of the second half was spent with us all stood up dancing and clapping away, which was great to be a part of. They also had us actively joining in with the lyrics during ‘War’ and competing for which half of the audience were loudest!
It felt a little odd to be at a show in a theatre that felt more like a gig that would normally be held somewhere with a dancefloor area like an arena. The seats were needed for some of the audience though as this show attracted a wide variety of people, some of who were quite elderly. However, I was very impressed with the amount of grey haired people who still managed to get up and have a boogie!
I do have a couple of niggles. One is that it was very loud and my ears are still ringing. We were seated on an end 4 rows back from the front, which was right by a speaker. However, there were a few seats empty to the side of us so we were able to move along a few seats which made it slightly more bearable. The loudness also meant that on occasion the singing sounded slightly distorted though. The other is that I think they may have had some sound issues with the guy playing the saxophone and the flute in the first half, as these instruments were too loud at times and too quiet in others. When they were too loud it detracted away from the singers. They seemed to have sorted this out by the second half though.
All in all this was definitely the most energetic show I have ever attended in a theatre and the audience loved it. I’d definitely recommend it to fans of Motown.
I rate it a 4/5 (mainly marked down by the fact that my ears are still ringing from the unnecessarily loud sound system!).
Rating: 4/5
Dancing in the Streets is currently on tour around the UK, for more information and tour dates visit www.flyingmusic.com/our-shows/dancing-in-the-streets.
For other shows at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield visit www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk.
Lyceum Theatre, Norfolk St, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S1 1DA | 0114 249 6000
