Review: Making It at Liverpool's Royal Court ***

No matter the generation, no matter the venue, or show or size of the audience - the smell of the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd remain potently addictive.

But for every success story, there are a thousand tales of those who could have been a contender if only the stars had aligned, or the cards had fallen a different way.

Cath Rice’s Bev is one of the latter who has never given up hope of stardom, despite all the many slings and arrows of outrageous (mis)fortune endured over a long career at the cabaret, social club and cruise line coalface.

The character began life as a one-woman show, with Rice and writing partner (and director) Stephen Fletcher then expanding what was an award-winning ‘Christmas Cracker’ into the two-hour, two-hander Making It which was premiered in the Royal Court Studio three years ago with Andrew Schofield multi-tasking as the many male characters in Bev’s life.

Back where it all began as a teenage singer, Bev is doing a favour for club owner Harry by headlining a cabaret night (going on between tribute band Bon Geordie and the meat raffle) while expecting a call which she confidently predicts is going to change her fortunes once and for all.

Above and top: Cath Rice and Andrew Schofield in Making It. Photos by Atanas Paskalev.

In the meantime, the grotty surroundings of the club’s backstage area prompt Bev to take a trip down memory lane, recalling the occasional highs and myriad lows of her showbiz career from early gigs in dodgy dives to enticing offers of seasons at holiday camps and cruise residencies, along with blink-and-you-miss-her moments on the small and silver screen.

While Making It treads some of the same ground as Jigsy (both narratively and physically – Les Dennis appeared as the faded comic on the same Royal Court stage in 2012), there’s less of a sense of pathos in Rice’s tragi-comic creation who, while buffeted by her share of troubles, still manages to retain a surprisingly sunny, glass-half-full outlook on life.

Schofield meanwhile flits in and out of scenes as a succession of men who have helped or (mostly) hindered her in her quest for success, emerging Stars in Their Eyes-like from inside wardrobes and behind curtains sporting a series of dodgy wigs to play grotesques like a manipulative lothario manager-boyfriend, a pervert photographer and a suave film type, as well as sympathetic characters like her supportive cabbie dad and careworn club owner Harry.

Above: Andrew Schofield as Harry. Photo by Atanas Paskalev.

The Royal Court Studio was in many ways the perfect setting for the intimate style of storytelling at the heart of Making It, not least because down there, with its low ceiling and closely packed cabaret tables, it felt like you could actually be in the heart of Harry’s social club.

Here, while it’s great the Court has provided an opportunity for Bev’s tale to reach a much larger audience, and despite its set being reimagined to fit the main space - with the Royal Court’s revolve assisting in a smooth transition between designer Katie Scott's social club front-of-house and backstage, the action itself sometimes struggles to breach the pros arch and engage the wider auditorium.

And despite valiant efforts from Rice and Schofield – the former sparkling her socks off and the latter delivering all his trademark crowd-pleasing moves – there's a distinct lack of atmosphere, especially in the first half.

Still, while it's lost something in translation from downstairs, and the big laughs are harder to find (some of the biggest turn out to be in response to moments of corpsing), Rice and Schofield remain appealing storytellers and there are some enjoyably keen lines, along with an ending in which Bev's oft-misplaced optimism might just win the day.