Your homework for tonight? Go out and enjoy School of Rock at the Lyceum, Sheffield

Today’s assignment: there are no assignments! Just a high-octane lesson in how to have a fantastic, feel-good family night out and Stick it to the Man!

Sheffield is the last stop on a year-long UK and Ireland tour for the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which has raised the roof in 34 towns and cities since last September.

Based on the cult 2003 movie starring Jack Black, the show follows failed wannabe rock star Dewey Finn, who poses as a shambolic supply teacher at a posh private school in a desperate bid to pay the rent.

Whilst subverting his preppy pupils by schooling them in the rules of the rock gods, Finn - or should that be Ned Schneebly, the teacher flatmate whose identity he steals - of course discovers his own true calling. Hungover bum he may be, but he’s a more inspirational educator than any at the $50,000 a year Horace Green Elementary. And he helps his uptight headmistress rediscover her inner wildchild in the process.

Jake Sharp plays the lead and is the perfect Jack Black substitute, from his laugh-out-loud comedic energy to his dexterous eyebrow gymnastics.

Rebecca Lock as headteacher Miss Rosalie Mullins is operatic fantastic. Her bittersweet ode to lost youth, Where Did the Rock Go?, one of 14 new numbers by Webber to bolster the original songs from the film, is a beautifully touching moment among the shred guitar, drum rolls and cymbal crashes.

The clever sliding scenery moves in and out, round and round, transforming the theatre from school corridor and classroom to rock stage and back again, and we the audience become the foot-stomping crowd at the Battle of the Bands big finale.

But the real stars of the show are the kids, Finn’s class of 12, played by a huge rotating cast of more than 40 talented children from across the UK. The show lights up when the youngsters perform and all of them, Katie on bass guitar, Zack on lead guitar, and Summer the formidable manager, are stars of the future.

It’s been 19 years since the movie and there are updates to the script - references to TikTok, Taylor Swift and James Corden - which jar a little with nostalgia for the film.

The plot also suffers slightly from the moving on of modern mores since 2003. Viewed through the prism of 2022, Dewey Finn is a safeguarding nightmare, and some of what might have seemed hilarious but faintly possible nearly 20 years ago feels borderline criminal today. DBS check? What DBS check?

It doesn’t matter. School of Rock is a joyous, fist-pumping, hand-clapping, hair-thrashing celebration of the power of music. Your homework for tonight? Go out and enjoy it, before the curtain comes down on Saturday!

School of Rock is at the The Lyceum, Sheffield, until Saturday, July 30.