Stepping Out is not a dance show, it’s a play by Richard Harris about people who dance — the characters who turn up at a weekly church hall tap-dancing class. We’re talking strictly amateur here; these women, and the single man, are to Fred and Ginger what the cast of Calendar Girls are to Page Three. The action never moves outside the tatty hall, and for about half the show the cast are actually dancing — if you can call it that! We meet lovely Mavis, (Lucy Williamson), an ex- professional who runs the class; a mixed bag of nine women of assorted sizes and varying degrees of incompetence and the single man; shy, self-effacing Geoffrey (Brian Capron).

Into this group bursts a newcomer, Vera, played by former songstress Anita Harris, like Dot Cotton in a lurid leotard and a Julie Andrews accent. She is patronising and bossy, and annoys nearly everyone. She is also obsessed with cleanliness. “It may be February outside, but it’s always August under your armpits” she tells the sweating class. At first the laughs are in the stumbling attempts to follow Mavis’s steps, but then things get serious when the group is booked to appear at a charity show. Gradually they’re transformed, if not into a Busby Berkeley chorus line, at least into a watchable ensemble, and the show ends with their triumphant performance.

The title Stepping Out also applies to the way in which the characters reveal themselves during the play. We hear how Mavis, good looking and a good dancer, came to be stranded in this backwater; Geoffrey eventually approaches equally shy Andy, Joanne Murdock), and Mrs Fraser, the grumpy pianist (Janet de Vigne, a dead ringer for SuBo in a funny hat), finally breaks into song.

This is an enjoyable show, an undemanding evening that is a lot of fun with a touch of melancholy here and there. Anita Harris (left above) may be the biggish name, but Lucy Williamson is the star. It’s on until Saturday (0844 871 7652).