BWW Reviews: STEPPING OUT, Union Theatre, November 20 2011

Stepping Out is something of an old hoofer itself these days - 27 years on from its premiere, it has been revived at the Union Theatre (until 10 December) with some changes made to the script by its author, Richard Harris. Not that anyone unfamiliar with the original would be able to tell, as the show’s poignant tale of misfits learning to get along as they rehearse dance routines in a bleak church hall remains at its heart.

Mavis (Barbara King - pictured - all bottled up emotion and Miss Jean Brodie-ish efficiency in teaching) accompanied by gruff pianist Mrs Fraser (Ruth Evans) are making a few quid delivering step-classes to a mixed bag of women and one man (Alexander Giles in a nicely understated performance). As the troupe tap out their tunes (and there’s some classics from Irving Berlin and George Gershwin to enjoy), tensions build and subside as we learn more about the backstories of these ordinary women living ordinary lives. It is in the very ordinariness of their problems and preoccupations that the show finds its voice and its charm – its message is that life may not be easy, but it has its compensations too.

Though some of the characters teeter on The Edge of caricature – the 27 years since the musical’s premiere have seen an explosion in soap operas, reality TV and Oprah Winfrey-style talk shows that lay bare such lives – sensitive acting keeps the women rounded enough for us to care about. Helen Jeckells as the appallingly insensitive Vera does a fine turn, before revealing just enough for us to discern why she is so keen on displacement activity and Evadne Ricketts has great fun as Rose, all bonhomie in a white fright-wig.

What the show gains in tracking the characters’ discovery of their depth of their own personalities, as their routines progress from the hopeless to the competent, it loses in not allowing a talented cast to dance to their potential. Only in the last scene do we see the pleasure talented dancers take in their work and only then do we see that it was all worthwhile – as it always is.

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