Stepping Out
                Reviewed by Linda Lopez McAlister
            For The Women's Show, WMNF-FM, Tampa, FL

     This weekend I recommend stepping out.  That's both what I
think you should do and what I think you should see.  The film,
"Stepping Out," which opened yesterday at the Movies at Largo is an
utter delight--a kind of a cross between "Strangers in Good Company"
and "Chorus Line" if you can imagine that--that will have you leaving
the theater smiling and crying and laughing and tapping your toes.
It was directed by Englishman Lewis Gilbert, the same person who
directed Shirley Valentine a couple of years ago and "Educating
Rita" a couple of decades ago--so he already has a great track
record of making positive films about women and this film adds to
it immeasurably.  Great cinema it probably isn't, but it's a
"little film" that has a big heart, a dynamite cast, and a loving
attitude toward the 8 women and one man who are its focus.

    And who are they?  The Mavis Turner Tappers.  Mavis Turner,
played by Liza Minelli, is a former Broadway singer/dancer who, six
years before, had fallen in love with a self-centered pop musician
with a gold record, and gave up her career to follow his.  Now,
while he still believes he's God's gift to the world, it's Mavis
who supports them by singing in bars and teaching an adult tap
dancing class in an old church in upstate New York.  Her little
class of 7 mismatched, awkward, and thoroughly unlikely pupils and
their temperamental accompanist (played by Shelly Winters who's so
good she nearly walks away with the film) are invited by the local
grande dame of the arts to perform a number in the annual holiday
charity benefit for the Save the Children Foundation.  When Mavis
breaks the news to the class the thought of performing in public
strikes sheer terror into their hearts, but they can see Mavis is
excited about it and she convinces them to trust her not to let
them embarrass themselves, so they agree.

   As they work on their routine at their weekly classes over the
next few months, they get to know one another better and we get to
know them too, and we learn about the reality of their lives
outside class.  Andy (played by the wonderful Canadian actress
Sheila McCarthy whom you may remember from "I've Heard the Mermaids
Singing") is a painfully awkward and shy married woman who quietly
pursues the one man in the group (Bill Irwin)--the only person
there even shyer than she is--and we ultimately discover why she's
in the class and why he's so much more attractive to her than her
own husband.  Another of the students (played by Julie Walters the
Rita of "Educating Rita") who is a wealthy matron, obsessive/compulsive 
about cleanliness and utterly insensitive and tactless toward the others 
also has problems at home that make us come to understand and sympathize 
with her a little.  The others, too, become fleshed out real people, warts 
and all, and develop friendships and teamwork.

    Crisis upon crisis builds as the night of the performance
approaches, including Mavis's becoming pregnant and her husband
heading out for the big time in L.A. while Mavis makes it clear
that she has a life that's important to her where she is and that
whether or not she carries the pregnancy to term is her choice and
no one elses.

   By the time of the performance the film audience is on the edge
of their seat wondering if and how this number is going to come
off.  I won't give away the ending, but let me just say it will
surprise and entertain you.  Even though Liza Minelli is the
teacher, not a performer, in the group, we do get to hear her sing a
marvelous rendition of "Mean to Me" in a club where she works and
a couple of other dance numbers that are worked into the plot
nicely, so her singing and dancing talents don't have to take back
seat to her acting role.

   For sheer entertainment and fun, tie on your tap shoes and
shuffle off to Buffalo to see how the Mavis Turner Tappers make out
in their debut performance.

   For the WMNF Women's Show this is Linda Lopez McAlister on Women
and Film.