Stepping Out
Starring Annie Aitken, Debora Krizak and Deone Zanotto with direction and choreography by Madison Lee, Richard Harris’ Stepping Out is set to make its debut at Chapel Off Chapel from 15 April to 3 May 2020.
Stepping Out is as heart-warming as it is comedic, following the lives and loves of an unlikely group of women - and one man - as they stumble ungracefully through their weekly tap class in a shabby North London church hall. The performance centres around Mavis, the role portrayed by Liza Minnelli in the popular 1991 Americanised film adaptation, a mid 30s out-of-work professional dancer/actor who runs an amateur tap class to support herself between few-and-far-between paid gigs.
Pressure rises on the amateur dancers when Mavis decides to enter the class into a public fundraiser concert performance night. There is a ‘slight’ problem though - they are terrible at tapping. Their hilarious struggle to prepare for their first public performance results in a heart-warming performance about sisterhood, women supporting women and dancing through adversity.
Set in the early part of England’s Thatcherism era, 1984, a period of significant social unrest and division between classes, the tap-dancing women are inspiring representations of the wives, mothers and single ladies of this era. They each have their own unique lives and struggles outside the walls of the weekly dance class, resulting in a tap class that is group therapy in leg warmers and top hats. One of the fastest rising stars of the Australian music theatre stage, Annie Aitken recently starred to great acclaim as Millie Dillmount in Thoroughly Modern Millie, which marked her third show with The Production Company having previously appeared in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and Oklahoma. Other career highlights include Cunégonde in Candide at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall alongside Alexander Lewis and Caroline O’Connor (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs)for which she won a Broadway World Award for Best Actress in a lead role in an Opera, and as original cast member in the world premiere of Muriel’s Wedding: The Musical (STC/Global Creatures).
The winner of the prestigious Rob Guest Endowment Award, Annie originated the lead role of Nellie Melba in Melba (Hayes Theatre Company) starring opposite the legendary soprano Emma Matthews in a performance that earned her a Sydney Theatre Award nomination for Best Female Actor in a Lead Role in a Musical. Other credits include Jekyll and Hyde 25th Anniversary Concert with Anthony Warlow (Concertworks), Whitney Sunday in DreamSong (EbbFlow), Bunny in Sweet Charity (Tinderbox/Luckiest Productions/Neil Gooding), Chastity in Anything Goes (Opera Australia/GFO), and Maria & Liesl cover in The Sound of Music (GFO/RUG/David Ian).
Debora Krizak is one of Australia's most versatile and critically recognized performers. Originally from Adelaide, she began her career by being cast in Mel Brooks’ The Producers and went on to performances in Titanic – a new musical, Respect the Musical, A Chorus Line, Guy Noble’s Karaoke The Musical, Calendar Girls (GFO), Stalker Theatre’s worldwide debut of Shanghai Lady Killer, Jerry's Girls (The Production Company) and Squabbalogic’s Sondheim On Sondheim in 2014 which earned her a Glug nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her performance in Sweet Charity, playing the dual roles of Nickie and Ursula, earned her another Helpmann and Glug nomination as well as a winning the Sydney Theatre Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical. Debora made her debut with Opera Australia in 2016, playing the role of Erma in the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes, as well as understudying Caroline O'Connor as Reno Sweeney and in 2017, Debora played the role of Fraulein Kost in David Hawkins’ touring production of Cabaret earning another Glug nomination. Deone Zanotto is an actor, dancer and singer who has performed extensively throughout Australia as w