Features

Stepping Out

| London |

4 May 2010

Richard Harris wrote Stepping
Out more than 25 years ago and the show enjoyed a long run in
London. The play has since become a staple of rep theatres up and down
the land. It became a slightly unnecessary musical, directed again by
Julia McKenzie, who helmed the original play. Bill Kenwright
produced the film version where the story was shuffled off
to Buffalo and starred Liza Minnelli. Now it is back on tour to
celebrate the anniversary.

A dance class meets weekly as a mixed
bunch of amateurs seek to tap their troubles away. Gradually we see
improvements in their skills and also get to know more about the varied
bunch of characters. Every member of the class has a story to tell as
it becomes obvious that the weekly evening class is their form of
therapy. For most of them the couple of hours in the church hall is a
release and an escape from a less than fulfilling life.

Brain Capron is funny and convincing,
as the token man, shy and awkward Geoffrey, who does not exactly grasp
opportunities with both hands. Anita Harris is the posh and slightly
out of place, Vera, who has an uncanny knack of saying just the wrong
thing at the wrong time. Janet de Vigne is amusing as the
cantankerous old pianist Mrs Fraser. She played the same part in an
excellent production at Pitlochry a few years back. As troubled Andy,
Johanne Murdock handles her emotionally charged outburst very well.

Director Richard Baron has wisely
chosen to leave the show set in the 80s, where lycra and leg warmers
bring back painful memories for some in the audience. The dancing is
deliberately awful but we will on the Mavis Turner Tappers as they
improve and rehearse for their big break in a charity gala. The final
scenes don’t work as well as I have seen them done in previous
productions.

The play is necessarily episodic and
some of the characters are thinly sketched but that was always going to
be the case with so many stories to tell. One major problem is the
audibility of some of the actors. Many lines and laughs are lost along
the way. The Festival is a big theatre and not the most suitable venue
for relatively small plays. That some of the cast could be heard
perfectly well suggests the problem is one of projection and not
acoustics. The production as a whole felt somewhat undercast and some
of the parts work better with older actresses. However, after 25 years,
Stepping Out remains fun, heart-warming and like the
weekly tap class, a pretty good night out.

– Keith Paterson