Stepping Out

SMS Studios is a new branch of the award winning Southampton Musical Society and offers a different outlet for the society to promote their talents. With this they certainly did.

Warmly welcomed into a bustling and excited auditorium by Adrian Jones and the FOH Team, we took our seats and looked forward to what we hoped would be a good evening's entertainment. We were not to be disappointed.

Stepping Out is an archetypal British comedy that follows the trials and tribulations of a small amateur tap dancing class and their teacher Mavis, trying to get her class, a mix and match of people from all backgrounds and associated loves and baggage to be the best that they can be and show their "talents" to the local audience.

We were greeted by a well lit stage, the inside of any one of the thousands of church halls across the UK. Well designed and well put together, it immediately transformed us all back to, where i am sure, we have all rehearsed or performed in the past. Two doors either side as the entrance, and exit into the kitchen. Here is where the action took place. The lights dimmed and away we went.

The cast were led very well by Hannah Ley as Mavis, the teacher, and Annemarie Parsons as the dour and grumpy pianist Mrs Fraser, but in truth all of the performers were well cast and put so much charisma into their own individual characters, so believable, humour, sadness, pathos and fantastic timing. They had obviously been well rehearsed by Director Paul Warne and choreographed by Dotty Brough, and it was quite evident, certainly from where I sat, that their vision had been totally bought by the cast and I would imagine that the rehearsals would have been fun. Their enthusiasm certainly came into the auditorium and the audience were sold the story and enthralled by its outcomes. The diction was clear, the sound at the right level and there appeared to be no lost or forgotten lines and all the cast looked confident in where they were supposed to be and why, entrances and exits, spot on.

The story ran well, at a good pace and culminated with a fantastic tap dance routine, full of colour, speed, humour and although the choreography was testing in places, the effort by the cast pulled it off with great aplomb. As with most shows these days there always seems to be a standing ovation at the conclusion of the show, mostly not really deserved, here however that could not have been further from the truth. Bravo.

Although this was the third outing for the studio's (I'd missed the first two) I was intrigued to see how the cast, many of whom I'd seen and reviewed frequently in traditional musicals, would adapt. They did brilliantly. We were thoroughly entertained, a triumph for Southampton Musical Society. Congratulation 11/10!

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