Stepping Out is a play

Play (theatre)

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

 written by Richard Harris

Richard Harris (television writer)

Richard Harris is a prolific British television writer, most active from the early 1960s to the mid-1990s. He writes primarily for the crime and detecitve genres, having contributed episodes of series like The Avengers, The Saint, The Sweeney, Armchair Mystery Theatre, and Target...

 in 1984. It was produced in the West End

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

, London, where it received the Evening Standard Comedy of the Year Award, and on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

, New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

Plot

The play concerns eight individuals from disparate backgrounds and with differing motivations who attend the same weekly tap dancing class in a dingy North London

North London

North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...

 church hall

Church hall

A church hall is a room or building associated with a church, general for community and charitable use . It is normally located near the church, typically in smaller and village communities. Activities in the hall are not necessarily religious, but are typically an important part of local community...

. Despite the students at first treating the classes as social occasions, and showing little co-ordination, they later develop a level of skill and cohesiveness. The dance routines are the background for the focus of the play, the relationship and interaction of different people.

Background

According to the play's writer, Richard Harris, the inspiration for the show came from his late wife, the actress Hilary Crane: "My wife started her career as a dancer and she liked to keep her foot in, as it were, so she went down to the local dance class and when she came back she suggested that I should go and have a look as she felt there might be a play in it for me."

Taking his wife's advice, Harris visited the local church hall, a setting very much like that in the play, where a tap dance

Tap dance

Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sound of one's tap shoes hitting the floor as a percussive instrument. As such, it is also commonly considered to be a form of music. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses more on the...

 class was in progress. "My wife hadn't been to the tap dance class", he explains. "She went to join a modern dance

Modern dance

Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Intro:...

 group, so it was by pure luck that I happened to go there and look through the window when a tap dance class was going on. It struck me that they all seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves and I thought if I could capture that, the pleasure they are clearly getting out of the class, I might be a winner. So I spent a period researching and going to various dance classes and then wrote the play."

Productions

The original production of Stepping Out premiered at Leatherhead

Leatherhead

Leatherhead is a town in the County of Surrey, England, on the River Mole, part of Mole Valley district. It is thought to be of Saxon origin...

 Theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 in 1984, directed by the actress Julia McKenzie

Julia McKenzie

Julia McKenzie is an English actress, singer, and theatre director. She is best-known for her performance in Fresh Fields, but to current television audiences, she is best known for her role as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple...

 with cast: Barbara Ferris

Barbara Ferris

Barbara Gillian Ferris is an English actress and former fashion model.She appeared in a number of films and productions for television and is possibly best remembered as Dinah, the young woman who eloped with Dave Clark in the 1965 film Catch Us If You Can...

 (Mavis), Sheri Shepstone (Mrs. Fraser), Charlotte Barker

Charlotte Barker

Charlotte Barker is a British actress.She was born to British comedian Ronnie Barker and Joy Tubb.Charlotte has worked mostly for television where she gave her debut in the 1985 film Frankie and Johnnie by Martin Campbell...

 (Lynne), Josephine Gordon (Dorothy), Barbara Young

Barbara Young

Barbara Young may refer to:*Barbara Young, Baroness Young of Old Scone, Labour member of the British House of Lords*Barbara Young , British actress*Barbara Young, poet whose work was featured in Thomas Moult's anthology Best Poems of 1931...

 (Maxine), Gabrielle Lloyd (Andy), Ben Aris

Ben Aris

Benjamin Patrick Aris was an English actor who was best known for his parts in Hi-de-Hi! and To the Manor Born, and was also very active on stage. He was often cast as an eccentric, upper-class man....

 (Geoffrey), Diane Langton

Diane Langton

Diane Langton is an English actress and singer.She has appeared in numerous TV shows like Only Fools and Horses, where she played Junie, an old girlfriend of Del Boy's, in the 1980s....

 (Sylvia), Peggy Phango (Rose) and Marcia Warren

Marcia Warren

Marcia Warren is an English stage, film and television actress. On stage, she appeared in Blithe Spirit as Madame Arcati, and The Sea at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket.-Partial filmography:...

 (Vera). A tour of the production followed. The play went to the West End

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

, opening at the Duke of York's Theatre, on 24th September 1984, and ran for nearly three years until 1 July 1987. It was awarded the Evening Standard

Evening Standard

The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...

 Award for Best Comedy in 1984.

The play has been produced world-wide, and won a Moliere Award for Best Comedy in Paris. A Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 run began in 1987, opening at the John Golden Theatre

John Golden Theatre

The John Golden Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 252 West 45th Street in midtown-Manhattan. Designed in a Moorish style along with the adjacent Royale Theatre by architect Herbert J. Krapp for Irwin Chanin, it opened as the Theatre Masque on February 24 1927 with the play Puppets of Passion...

 on 11 January, running for 73 performances before closing on 15 March. It was directed by Tommy Tune

Tommy Tune

Thomas James "Tommy" Tune is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won nine Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts.-Early years:...

; the cast included Pamela Sousa, Carole Shelley

Carole Shelley

Carole Shelley is an English actress. Among her many stage roles are the character of Madame Morrible in the original Broadway cast of the musical Wicked.-Life and career:...

, Janet Eilber, Carol Woods and Meagen Fay

Meagen Fay

Meagen Fay is an American actress.A native of Chicago, in the early 1980s Fay was a featured cast member at The Second City. Her first television role was in the 1987 television series Ohara....

.

A revised musical

Musical theatre

Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 version of Stepping Out, One Night a Week, with book by Richard Harris, lyrics by Mary Stewart-David, and music by Denis King

Denis King

Denis King is an English Ivor Novello award-winning composer, singer and actor.As a writer he composed music for the British television series The Adventures of Black Beauty, Within These Walls, Lovejoy and Worzel Gummidge amongst others. He also composed the theme to the 1992 series The New...

, was released in 2010.

Film

Stepping Out

Stepping Out (1991 film)

Stepping Out is a 1991 musical-comedy film directed by Lewis Gilbert, starring Liza Minnelli, written by Richard Harris and based on a play also written by Harris. Minnelli plays the role of a has-been Broadway performer who gives tap lesson to a group of misfits who, through their dance classes,...

 was produced as a film in 1991, directed by Lewis Gilbert

Lewis Gilbert

Lewis Gilbert CBE is an English film director, producer and screenwriter.-Early life:He was the son of music hall performers, and spent his early years travelling with his parents, and watching the shows from the side of the stage. He first performed on-stage at the age of 5, when asked to drive a...

, and starring Liza Minnelli

Liza Minnelli

Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....

, with Julie Walters

Julie Walters

Julie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...

 who was nominated for a BAFTA Award.

Theatre tours

2009 UK touring production

Cast: Brian Capron

Brian Capron

Brian Capron, born 11 February 1947 at Eye in Suffolk, is a British actor, who trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art . His father was an Algerian pilot, of French descent, who died in a plane crash before Brian was born....

 (Geoffrey), Jessie Wallace

Jessie Wallace

Jessie Wallace is an English actress best known for her portrayal as Kat Moon in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.-Early life:...

 (Sylvia), Rosemary Ashe

Rosemary Ashe

Rosemary Ashe is an English stage actress and classically trained opera singer. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music and the London Opera Centre....

 (Mrs Fraser), Wendy Mae Brown (Rose), Carrie Ellis (Maxine), Susie Fenwick (Vera), Katie Kerr (Lynne), Johanne Murdock (Andy), Karen Traynor (Dorothy), Lucy Williamson (Mavis), Lucy Woolliscroft (Fairy/Understudy), Ian Ganderton (Understudy), Yasmin Pettigrew (Understudy), Felicity Butler (Understudy).

2010 UK touring production

Cast: Brian Capron

Brian Capron

Brian Capron, born 11 February 1947 at Eye in Suffolk, is a British actor, who trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art . His father was an Algerian pilot, of French descent, who died in a plane crash before Brian was born....

 (Geoffrey), Anita Harris

Anita Harris

Anita Harris is an English actress, singer and entertainer....

(Vera), Katie Kerr (Sylvia), Janet De Vigne (Mrs Fraser), Wendy Mae Brown (Rose), Natalie Cleverley (Maxine), Catherine Millsom (Lynne), Johanne Murdock (Andy), Karen Traynor (Dorothy), Lucy Williamson (Mavis), Lucy Woolliscroft (Fairy/Understudy), Ian Ganderton (Understudy), Liz Jadav (Understudy), Felicity Butler (Understudy).

Both tours started their runs at the Leatherhead Theatre where the play was originally performed.

External links

• Progress Theatre Reading production review 2004
• Derby Playhouse production review 2007. Retrieved 9 Feb. 2011.