Review – Stepping Out

Though this might have been good fodder for a not-especially-talented high school theatre class, it worked neither on Broadway (73 performances) nor as a movie. Liza Minnelli plays an aging never-was teaching an ensemble of talentless tap students. When the class is offered the chance to perform in a charity benefit, the teacher struggles to whip them into shape. A series of contrived plot twists and cliché character developments ensues. The cast features several familiar faces – not to mention Richard Harris writing the screenplay based on his own original theatre piece – but overall the cake gets left out in the rain. Mildly amusing [note: upon further investigation, it turns out that the Richard Harris who wrote this is a different guy from the Richard Harris who sang “MacArthur Park.” Still, the line is good enough to leave it in.]