Home Top

BAZ BAMIGBOYE: Amanda's happy tappy about her new dance role

Published: 00:19 GMT, 11 March 2016 | Updated: 00:44 GMT, 11 March 2016

View
comments

Amanda Holden will be showing off her dance skills when she treads the boards in the autumn. But she won’t be putting her best foot forward — on purpose.

The star judge of Britain’s Got Talent will lead a new production of the 1984 play Stepping Out, about a group of women and a man who attend a dance class in a North London church hall.

Although Holden was taught tap by Broadway dance master Rob Ashford when she did Thoroughly Modern Millie in the West End, her expertise isn’t needed for Stepping Out.

The star judge of Britain’s Got Talent will lead a new production of the 1984 play Stepping Out, about a group of women and a man who attend a dance class in a North London church hall

‘Yes, I know how to tap badly,’ she joked, ‘which is most important for Stepping Out’, referring to the fact that apart from the dance teacher, the characters are amateurs. Holden told me she had a lightbulb moment while watching the 1991 film version of the Richard Harris play, starring Liza Minnelli and Julie Walters.

‘A lot of my friends are actors and we hang out together and we’ve always wanted to find a project we could do together,’ she said, adding that so far her pals Angela Griffin and Nicola Stephenson have been cast in the show by director Maria Friedman. Holden explained why the show’s sensibility endures: ‘Women still want their two hours away from their families, homes and problems to just have the company of other women to offload and learn something new.

‘I normally go for a run, but it will be the only hour of the day where someone’s not calling me “mummy”, or “Mandy”, or “can you do this?” That time is so precious.’ said the actress, who has taken to calling Stepping Out Calendar Girls with tap dancing.

Although Holden instigated the project she’s not taking a producers’ credit. She said: ‘Simon Cowell always advised me not to stick your name on anything, so I’m taking that advice.’

She’s currently in her tenth season on Britain’s Got Talent with Cowell and will do the 11th season early next year .

Holden is currently in her tenth series of Britain's Got Talent (pictured with fellow judges in 2013 David Walliams, Alesha Dixon and Simon Cowell)

Rehearsals for Stepping Out start on September 12. A short tour kicks off at the Bath Theatre Royal from October 12 followed by runs in Richmond from October 24 and the Cambridge Arts Theatre from October 31. Additional tour dates are being planned and there’s hope of a run in the West End.

Holden will play the role of Vera, described as a perfectionist who hides a secret about her private life.

Director Friedman said: ‘It’s about having the courage to put one foot in front of the other, and Amanda and her friends are all up for it and it speaks to them after 30 years.’

Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle is in negotiations to direct the film version of the musical Miss Saigon for mega impresario Cameron Mackintosh and Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner at Working Title Films, the producers behind the film version of Les Miserables. Miss Saigon opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in 1989 and ran for a decade, and a revival has just finished. Neither Mackintosh nor Working Title responded to requests for a comment.