‘The Next Step’ Fails to Find Its Footing

A famous dancer-choreographer (Jenifer Parker) has broken with her former dance partner and creative collaborator. Now she’s subject to paranoid delusions that he is stalking her. Her asthmatic sister (Pamela Gordon) waits to inherit the dancing school and finds love with her dog (Mark B. Hill).

Jean Colonomos’ “The Next Step,” a drama loosely based on the life of Martha Graham, sounds interesting, but this Playwrights’ Arena production at the Lee Strasberg Theatre is tiresome in its almost melodramatic portrayal of the slightly crazed artiste and the kooky hanger-on sister.

We gain no insights into the creative mind or explanations about why the sisters surrender to differing delusions of paranoia and love.

Director Jon Lawrence Rivera does nothing to draw us into the lives of these lonely women or cast the subtle shadows of motivation into the performances. Parker mostly relies on poses and dramatic declarations while Gordon, looking much older than her supposedly older sister, is frailty and hesitation. Neither seems comfortably antagonistic or symbiotic, as sisters might.

The most interesting relationship is between Gordon and Hill. Hill is particularly amusing as a dog, made an unwilling participant in an imaginary marriage to his slightly daft mistress. But it’s hard to discern why a 17-year-old dog is played by such a young man, and this defies the logic of the piece.

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* “The Next Step,” Lee Strasberg Theatre, 7936 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Aug. 29. $12. (323) 960-7756. Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes.