Review: Dreamcoats and Petticoats at the Lyceum in Sheffield

With songs such as Let’s Twist Again, Let’s Dance and It’s My Party I soon found myself tapping my feet and clapping my hands during the show.

I wasn’t a stranger to the tunes, having being brought up listening to them thanks to my father, but other than that I knew little of what to expect at the Lyceum in Sheffield.

As soon as the first few opening notes were played I knew I was in for a superb evening, and I wasn’t wrong.

The cast quickly showed how talented they were - with their fantastic singing and dancing. As well as playing all the instruments live on stage, they also quickly transformed their own sets too.

There were electric guitars, drums, a saxophone, flute, oboe and trumpet – all used to create the sounds of the swinging sixties.

Set in 1961, Dreamboats and Petticoats tells the story of a group of teenagers bidding to win a song-writing competition. Two of the young musicians compete for best song and the affections of Sue, played by Amy Diamond.

The lead characters Bobby and Laura, played my Alexis Gerred and Elizabeth Carter, showed off their superb voices with perfect performances throughout the show.

Bad boy Norman, played by Ben James-Ellis, had a great voice, which was never more evident than in his first song The Wanderer.

But my favourite performance of the night came from Terry Winstanley - a former X Factor contestant.

Terry gave a thoroughly convincing performance as two characters – older Bobby, and Phil, youth club leader and young Bobby’s dad - and sang one of my favourite songs from the show, Things with Frank, played by Gavin Barnes.

The songs were fantastic, but it was clear from very early on that the story was written around the songs.

Having said that I thoroughly enjoyed my evening and was up with the rest of the audience dancing to the final few songs of the night.

Dreamboats and Petticoats is on at the Lyceum until Saturday 21st July.

by Sam Chetwynd