Review: STEVE, Seven Dials Playhouse

The theatre formerly known as Tristan Bates, located just across the road from the Palace in the West End, has undergone a refurbishment and come out of the pandemic with a snazzy facelift and a brand new name. Now called the Seven Dials Playhouse, it's finally opened its doors again with a camp, compassionate story about hurt and acceptance with a tribute to musicals at its core.

Premiering in Europe fresh out of its Off-Broadway debut, Mark Gerrard's play Steve launches the Playhouse's inaugural season. It's a bold, unmistakably flashy production. But it's not without a thumping heart. Holby City's alumnus David Ames leads a cast that features stage veterans Jenna Russell, Giles Cooper, Joe Aaron Reid, and Michael Walters.

Steven (Ames) and Stephen (Reid) have been a couple for 16 years and have a son together, Stevie. As their friend Carrie is dying of cancer, Steven grapples with his own mortality and age. While, all around him, his friends are finding new ways to keep the spark alight, the suspicion of Stephen's adultery gnaws at him.

Gerrard's piece might start with easy dinner chitchat, but becomes a rather profound insight into growing older as a gay man in New York. Lee Newby's set design is a convivial first impression of the show. The stage is a functioning bar with tables lining three sides, the white tablecloths and bare brickwork recalling of a brasserie of sorts. It's with this vibe that director Andrew Keates introduces the audience as voyeurs in the dynamic of the Steves.

Steven's relentless biting sarcasm gives way to his extensive questioning of his behaviour and relationship. A stay-at-home father, he starts to feel trapped in a partnership that verges on its own end. While he believes himself inadequate and unprepared for life, his friend Brian (Cooper) seems to have become very close to Stephen. Enter Esteban (Nico Conde), a younger dance student who appeals to Steve's ego and eases his lack of confidence.

Ames gesticulates his way through the performance, but, by the end, it becomes part of the character and acts as foil to Reid's collected and assured Stephen. As Steven struggles to reconcile his internal explosions of emotion with his outer, well-behaved self, we are treated to in-depth conversations about death and sexuality, abandonment and parenthood.

His exchanges with Russell's Carrie are especially heartfelt, sharing the flowing, sparkling chemistry of lifelong friends. She is remarkable as the dying lesbian blogger who shares her life online and loves to reminisce about waiting tables in their younger years. All of it is laced with jabs at Broadway colleagues and shameless theatre references. It's loud and showy, but it works and speaks for a generation of musical theatre superfans.

They might yell a full-chested "F*ck you BroadwayWorld.com" at one point, but we're giving them four stars anyway. None taken, we loved this one!

Steve runs at the Seven Dials Playhouse until 19 March.

Photo credit: The Other Richard

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