Jump to content

The Lyceum Theatre


Sheffield History

Recommended Posts

Fantastic stuff, History Dude.

As is probably to be expected, I find the adverts the most fascinating part of these programmes and handbills :blink:, and I suspect that I am not alone in that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Jay_505

With regard to the Sleeping Beauty Pantomime with Roy Hudd, season 65-66....

Does anyone here remember a dalek being in the production? I've heard this mentioned a couple of times online but can't find much more about it. Seems like the sort of thing that would turn up in newspaper/publicity photos, but so far I've drawn a blank.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes Jay_505 I saw Roy Hudd & Edmund Hockridge in 'The Sleeping Beauty' at the Lyceum and now you mention it a Dalek did come on at one point in the panto. I also remember Roy Hudd coming on in a long kilt with a wire attached to it and when he was mid stage the long kilt was wipped off him to reveal a mini kilt. Funny what you remember. Leading up to the interval there was a spectacular 'Pageant Of The Four Seasons' - Spring, Summer, Autumn & Winter during which there was a fall of snow to bring the first half of the panto to a close. Bet the stage hands just loved sweeping that up twice a day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Jay_505

Many thanks for the confirmation and the additional into. :)

What I'm trying to do is ascertain exactly which dalek prop was used on this occasion. Two props were given away to Dr Barnardos and I suspect that these may have been used for fundraising. Given that Roy Hudd is quite involved with charity work, it seems reasonable to assume that he might have managed to arrange for one of their daleks to appear... especially as the props still at the BBC were all involved with filming, during this panto season.

A photo might confirm this theory, if anyone can help. Daleks in Sheffield (or indeed Yorkshire) at this time is unknown of (though they made it to Manchester and Norwich), so it would be nice to find out if it was a 'real' BBC one that visited.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Clare Ferraby.

What a deceptively simple yet fiendish question ...

Welcome to the Site BelindaB lol

Does anyone know the name of the artist who painted the safety curtain?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Andi_Brooks

I'm researching Bela Lugosi's appearance in Dracula at the Lyceum during the week of August 6-11 in 1951. Does anyone have any memories or information regarding this play?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Slightly different dates on offer here, but also some more cast members..

Renfield ... MASTER ....

(Now what on earth has this got to do with The Ballard of Dwight Frye by an early Alice Cooper Band ... ?)

I'm researching Bela Lugosi's appearance in Dracula at the Lyceum during the week of August 6-11 in 1951. Does anyone have any memories or information regarding this play?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Andi_Brooks

Slightly different dates on offer here, but also some more cast members..

Renfield ... MASTER ....

(Now what on earth has this got to do with The Ballard of Dwight Frye by an early Alice Cooper Band ... ?)

Thank you Richard. That's a great book on Lugosi.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I never went inside The Lyceum - but I must have walked past it five hundred times. I used to catch the bus from King Ted's about four o'clock, get off at City Hall, walk down Fargate and then (via Chapel Walk if memory serves) past The Lyceum. Just past it, on the left, was a long set of steep steps which I would dash down to get to Pond Street and my bus home to Gleadless.

I remember that the bills outside the theatre often advertised multiple acts - variety, I suppose though I can't remember if they were comedy acts, jugglers, pop groups and singers, or a mixture.

But me best memory of that time, in the early 1960s, was going into the sweet shop which was just across the road from the Lyceum. As I walked in, the great comedian Arthur Haynes walked out. With lightning speed I whipped out my Letts Schoolboys' Diary which he duly signed for me. It was the first time I had met a celebrity "in the flesh" and I was very excited.

I had assumed that The Lyceum was long gone and had been replaced by something made of concrete and glass; I am delighted to find out from this site that it is still there and thriving. I don't think those steps (there were four flights, from memory) are there any more though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Still there, still thriving, and about to have another refurbishment. The Sheffield Theatres, i.e. the Lyceum and the Crucible, have just been jointly voted the best theatres outside London, for the second year running, by The Stage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

With regard to the Sleeping Beauty Pantomime with Roy Hudd, season 65-66....

Does anyone here remember a dalek being in the production? I've heard this mentioned a couple of times online but can't find much more about it. Seems like the sort of thing that would turn up in newspaper/publicity photos, but so far I've drawn a blank.

Yes, I was there, the next door but one neighbour took me and my sister. We were in a box - I remember the dalek and the cast throwing sweets into the audience.

I'm just reading Roy Hudds autobiography and there's a section on the 1966 Sleeping Beauty production. Apparently Roy was under a death threat for the whole duration of the run (not from daleks however....)

A brief extract:

I knew I must have been becoming fairly well known during that season at the Lyceum because my life was threatened. One night I answered a call at the stage door phone to be assailed by a hoarse Lee Marvin-type voice with a Sheffield accent.

‘Don’t’ said the weirdo, ‘go onto the stage tonight. You will be shot!’

I started to laugh and the voice went up three decibels.

‘Do not laugh Hudd! I mean every word I say. Too long you have been a curse on this Christian Nation. You will spread your evil no more! Do NOT step onto the stage tonight!’

While I was racking my brain to see which of my chums could do an accent like that, the phone went down. A few minutes later the caller phoned back. ‘Don’t forget, you spawn of the devil! This is not a joke! Step onto that stage and you’re done for!’ I giggled to myself and tried not to imagine Jack Nicholson saying ‘Honey, I’m home; but I told the company manager what had happened. The police arrived within ten minutes. Apparently these sorts of phone calls had been made before and though nothing had happened, they would take no chances.

For the next fortnight I had a police escort to and from the theatre. The company, too, took every precaution. Whenever I was onstage with anyone they all stood at least six feet away from me. All except my two buddies, the classic double act Gordon and Bunny Jay. They addressed all their dialogue to me from behind pieces of scenery. For some bits they just poked their heads out of the dressing room. Never was so little seen of the pair of ‘em. Ted Hockridge also kept his distance, and even the boys and girls did most of their routines in the wings.

Nothing happened. Probably the sight of a slosh-covered comic being escorted backstage, twice a day, by two straight-faced coppers frightened the embryo Jackal away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does anyone have any information on an actress named Rose Parisa (not sure if the spelling is correct)?

She is apparently a member of the family and was active c. 1900-1930's. The family legend is that she appeared a lot in Panto as Principle Boy and appeared at the Lyceum on many occasions. Any information would be welcome.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was a part of a small architectural team which worked with a night club developer planning to turn the Lyceum into a dedicated night club... Fortunately, this didn't receive planning approval. A few memories of a weeks work:

The thousands of nesting pigeons as well as the water cisterns where the water was a vivid green colour...probably on account of the hundreds of decomposing pigeon corpses.

The food and drink left, Marie Celeste like, in the managers office.

The fact that we couldn't find a true right angle in the entire building.

The working water fire screen.

Performing a solitary, "Singing in the Rain", routine on the wet stage ( see above) in front of a ghostly audience of thousands in the stalls and gallery.

The dozens of unopened kegs of beer in the theatres many bars...including a bar under the stage.

I really must go and look at the building again! :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Screenshot 2020-06-03 at 20.14.21.jpg

I never knew that the Lyceum was used as a social club and bingo hall in the 1960s?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Screenshot 2020-06-04 at 19.14.23.jpg


The Lyceum Theatre Sheffield in 1968

How things have changed eh!

And parking on this road was fine too. Amazing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Screenshot 2020-06-04 at 22.06.15.jpg


£3.50 to see Yazoo at The Lyceum?

Yes please!

(not so fussed about Wishbone Ash or Squeeze tho)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was taken to see Roy Hudd in panto, so it must have been 1965/6. The only thing I remember was him throwing Mars bars to the kids, mainly because I didn't get one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went to see Doyli Carte in afternoon performance  of Pirates of Penzance there around 1964/65 as an escape from swotting for exams at Reference Libarary !!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After the Lyceum ceased being a "rock venue" interest was shown by a Bournemouth based night club owner. He had plans drawn up for a "theme" night club . the theme being a tramcar. The theatre already had more than one bar...including one under the stage.... where we found several kegs of untapped beer. The whole project collapsed when the Council and Licensing Magistrates became uncooperative and refused permission to increase the number of bars. Shortly after, plans emerged for SCC to refurbish the building.

As an aside, our survey showed the stage water curtain to still be in working order...scarcely a wall was at right angles and signs of a few "short cuts" being taken by the original builders . The theatre had also become the home ( and final resting place) of a mass of pigeons ..very messy!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 15/10/2009 at 20:10, Guest abcman said:

The Lyceum Theatre just prior to closure in 1969

post-5292-1255633513_thumb.jpg

The last time the D'Oyly Carte came to Sheffield I went down in my lunch time to buy tickets and found the queue was right around the theatre. They were doing a different Gilbert & Sullivan every night so I bought tickets for every night. I didn't get back to work that afternoon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, Old rider said:

 They were doing a different Gilbert & Sullivan every night so I bought tickets for every night. I didn't get back to work that afternoon.

That must have been the afternoon you did nothing in particular, but did it very well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...