“a very human story that pulls off the almost impossible feat of making you feel nostalgic for Thatcher’s Britain”
It is 1984 in London, and while Thatcher and Scargill are at loggerheads over the miner’s strike elsewhere, the city is setting the scene for its own battles in a time of cultural upheaval. There was a revolutionary spirit, partly fuelled by the property boom, that eventually found itself in the hands of the satirists. While Gordon Gekko’s “Greed is Good” speech echoed from Wall Street, our home grown “Loadsamoney” became a national catchphrase. But among the cacophony, a quieter voice, in the shape of the late writer Stephen Jeffreys, captured the mood with far more humanity and subtlety. “Valued Friends” was the play that launched Jeffreys’ career and won him the Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Award for most Promising Playwright.
In its first major revival in thirty years, the comedy and pathos still resonate in today’s turbulent economic and political climate. Yet the beauty of Jeffreys’ writing lies in his refusal to allow the social issues to take centre stage. They are merely the backdrop to the razor-sharp depiction of the characters, which makes his writing both era specific and timeless.
In a basement flat in Earls Court, four friends in their mid-thirties are scrabbling to keep their heads above water. They are thrown unexpectedly into a battle of nerves when a young, confident property developer offers them a substantial fee to vacate their home. Spurred on by the revolutions of their time, they quickly realise that they hold all the cards in this real-life game of Monopoly and, over the course of three years, they manipulate the burgeoning property market. But much more is at stake than a few quid, and that is what the audience cares about.
“How much do you care?” asks quirky, stand-up comic Sherry in the opening line. It is the beginning of a hilarious monologue about her journey home on the Underground, one of many delivered by Natalie Casey in a spellbinding performance that is a master class in comic timing. Meanwhile Michael Marcus’ Howard, an academic writing about the corruption of capitalism, is succumbing to the attraction of the pound signs waved in front of him. Marion and Paul make up the close-knit foursome destined to be torn apart. “You used to get some really good conversation in this flat. Burning issues and moral dilemmas and things. Now all everyone talks about is money”. Sam Frenchum, as Paul, brilliantly sheds his comic mantle as the keen music journalist to become the earnest home improvement enthusiast, while Catrin Stewart’s straight-talking, pragmatic Marion manages to pull our heartstrings as she discovers that the more she gains, the more she has to lose – on a purely personal level. Ralph Davis’ meticulously pitched estate agent, Scott, is a brilliant work of satire. Far from being a Mephistophelian figure he merely dangles the carrot. But show stealer is Nicholas Tennant as Stewart, who only appears in the second act as the hilarious, surreally philosophical builder.
Michael Fentiman’s sharp direction brings out the best of the actors on Michael Taylor’s simple yet ingenious set, that transforms in time-lapse motion from a scruffy basement flat to a swish, desirable property. This is a very human story that pulls off the almost impossible feat of making you feel nostalgic for Thatcher’s Britain. Richard Hammarton’s eighties soundtrack highlights the best of the decade, just as these characters shed a warm light on the heart of the matter. It’s a skilfully written and performed piece of modern satire: you shouldn’t like these people but, in answer to the opening question of the play, you care an awful lot.
Natalie Casey will join the previously announced Amanda Holden, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Tamzin Outhwaite and Nicola Stephenson in heart-warming comedy Stepping Out when it opens in London this Spring. Directed by Maria Friedman, this brand new staging of Richard Harris’s award-winning play which toured UK venues last year, will open at West End’s Vaudeville Theatre with preview performances from 1 March 2017 and opening night for press on 14 March 2017.
Further cast in the West End production of Stepping Out include Judith Barker, Jessica-Alice McCluskey, Sandra Marvin and Dominic Rowan with Janet Behan, Suzy Bloom, Emma Hook, Marcia Mantack, Katie Verner and Nick Warnford.
Stepping Out charts the lives of seven women and one man attempting to tap their troubles away at a weekly dancing class. Initially all thumbs and left feet, the group is just getting to grips with the basics when they are asked to take part in a charity gala. Over the course of several months we meet the group, and all of them have a story to tell. There’s perfectionist Vera, mouthy Maxine and uptight Andy, bubbly Sylvia and shy Dorothy, eager Lynne and cheerful Rose, and, of course, Geoffrey. At the piano is the dour Mrs Fraser and spurring them all on, the ever-patient Mavis.
This uplifting comedy originally premiered in the West End in 1984 starring Barbara Ferris and Marcia Warren, winning the prestigious Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy and enjoying extended runs both in the West End and on Broadway. Stepping Out has also been made into a musical, which became a film in 1991, starring Julie Walters, Liza Minnelli and Shelley Winters.
One of the UK’s best-loved personalities, Amanda Holden plays Vera. Nominated for an Olivier Award in 2004 for her leading role in Thoroughly Modern Millie, she also starred in the U.K. premiere of Shrek The Musical as Princess Fiona. Her numerous television credits include Wild at Heart, Kiss Me Kate, The Grimleys, Big Top and This Morning. She has been a judge on the award-winning Britain’s Got Talent throughout all of its ten series.
Natalie Casey is well known to TV audiences as playing Carol Groves in Hollyoaks and Donna Henshaw in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps. West End theatre credits include Fame, Legally Blonde, Well and Abigail’s Party with other stage work including 9 to 5, Hobson’s Choice, The Wedding Singer, The Vagina Monologues and Oklahoma!
Tracy-Ann Oberman played Chrissie Watts on EastEnders, and has also worked extensively with the RSC and National Theatre. She appeared with Kenneth Branagh in Edmond, and in the West End run of Boeing-Boeing. Her television appearances also include Toast of London, Friday Night Dinner and New Tricks.
Tamzin Outhwaite is well-known for the role of Melanie Healy in EastEnders which she played for four years. Her stage credits have included West End productions of Sweet Charity, Boeing-Boeing and How The Other Half Loves.
Nicola Stephenson’s many television credits include Brookside, Holby City and Emmerdale. Her stage credits include War Horse in the West End and roles with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Best known as a three-time Olivier Award winning star of the musical stage (with seven nominations), director Maria Friedman made an astonishing directorial debut in 2012 with a hugely acclaimed production of Merrily We Roll Along. In 2005 she won the award for Best Debut Performer on Broadway for Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Woman in White.
A prolific writer for both television and stage, Richard Harris’s credits include A Touch of Frost, Shoestring, The Darling Buds of May, The Last Detective, and Outside Edge, which won the Writer’s Guild Best Comedy Award, the British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Drama Series and the Television and Radio Industries Club Award for Best Comedy.
Presented by Theatre Royal Bath Productions and the James Grant Group, Stepping Out is directed by Maria Friedman, designed by Robert Jones and choreographed by Tim Jackson with lighting design by Peter Mumford, sound design by Gregory Clarke and orchestrations by Christopher Walker.
Thereafter the performance schedule will be as follows*:
Mon NO PERFORMANCE Tues 7.30pm Weds 2.30 & 7.30pm Thurs 2.30 & 7.30pm Fri 7.30pm Sat 2.30 & 7.30pm
Ticket prices from £20
*The only exception to this will be w/c 10 April which will have evening performances Monday to Saturdays evenings and matinees on Thursday and Saturday only.
