★★★★ The Choir of Man: Anyone Fancy a Trip to the Pub?

Photography by Mark Senior

If someone was to ask if you wanted to go to the pub this evening, what would your response be? Probably yes right? I know mine would be. Now, what if they took you to Sheffield’s Lyceum Theatre and claimed it was the same thing? It’d be a bit confusing. And what if they took you in and up onto the stage? Even more baffling. Despite all that, when The Choir of Man is in town, the pub and the theatre merge into one beautiful example of British culture.

The Choir of Man began life at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017 and has since travelled to the other end of the world and back. An incredibly popular west end run led to the show being nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play in 2022. Now, the musical has embarked on it’s first ever UK tour, stopping off at Sheffield Lyceum last week.

As soon as you enter the auditorium, you’re well aware that this is like no show you’ll have seen before. As we walked in, the stage was filled to the brim, but not because we were late and the show has a huge cast. No this was because the set includes a fully functioning bar, which is open to punters pre-show and during the interval. It was quite possibly the busiest tap room I’ve ever been in. It’s not just the working bar that sets this show apart from the start, as we took our seats a couple of the cast members came over and engaged us in some pretty wholesome conversations. It genuinely felt like a pub atmosphere and the actors we interacted with were super down to Earth, enhancing that sense of community.

That feeling permeates the entire show, even once the lights go down and the music starts, that jovial atmosphere doesn’t go away as is usually the case with most shows. A lot of the credit for that falls to the actors as well, who embody their roles wholeheartedly and make the audience feel a key part of the entire production, whether they’re addressing us all or, perhaps terrifyingly for some, entering the stalls and finding individuals to bring up on stage at various points. One lucky lady got a sweet guitar serenade from Beast (played by Rob Godfrey) while another tried (and failed) to build a house of cards from beermats.

Standout performances came from the aforementioned Beast, as well Poet Oluwalonimi (Nimi) Owoyemi, Maestro Gustav Melbardis and Barman Niall Woodson, who put in perhaps one of the most impressive swing performances we've seen aboslutely nailing a cover of 'Somebody To Love'. Owoyemi as Poet in particular was a highlight, which may be biased as this was the actor who came over and chatted with us, but he was the focal point for the audience throughout, eloquently introducing all the characters and acting as a glue for all of the vignettes that weaved throughout the show.

There is no through story to The Choir of Man, it’s a jukebox musical that doesn’t shoehorn in songs from a particular artist or era, it instead presents them as their own standalone moments, which works perfectly in the pub setting as it feels like a joyous night out with friends. They even left time at the end for a beautiful acapella performance of ‘Chandelier’ by Sia (which appeared earlier in the show) with two local community choirs from the area, a really magical thing to be a part of. So, next time you’re thinking of just heading to the pub of an evening, why don’t you check if The Choir of Man is in town, you might just have the time of your life.