Stepping Out - The Musical

I was certainly looking forward to stepping into the Stoke Rep to watch North Staffs Operatic Society’s performance of ‘Stepping Out- The Musical’

I knew I was in for an evening of great character performances when Sharon Lawton took up her position behind the piano as Mrs Fraser. Each character was well defined and the ten members of the cast worked hard to ensure that they stayed in character throughout the piece, whatever they were doing. Even in the dancing they all had their own individual style. This made the show very watchable. The costumes were also well suited to the characters and thoughtfully chosen.

The set of the inside and lobby area of the church hall worked well.  However, the wine bar and cafe would have benefited from being set further away from the hall walls, with more atmospheric lighting, to guide the audience, more clearly, to the change of venue. The end of scenes in this play often come to an abrupt end, that is how they are written, but the drawn out scene changes seemed to add to the ‘stop, start’ feel of the show.

The music and songs helped move the story on and further define the characters as they progressed through some very funny, thoughtful and poignant moments in their lives. Unfortunately the balance of sound on opening night was not quite right and I hope that as the week progressed, this improved.

The choreography worked well and I very much liked the end routine. I think this worked well because although we could see that the characters had improved in their dancing, it wasn’t so slick and perfect that you couldn’t believe that it was the same group of people we had followed throughout the show. The comedic touch of adding Mrs Fraser into the routine was great!

I certainly wouldn’t like to single out one particular performer involved in this show as it was obvious how hard the entire cast had worked to create the characters they successfully portrayed.

Well done to the production team, cast, crew and musicians. 

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