Two months into its nine-month tour of the UK, Here & Now – The Steps Musical stops off at London’s New Wimbledon Theatre this week for 5, 6, 7, 8 shows only.
Steps are the UK’s most successful mixed sex pop group of all time, with 14 top five singles, 4 number one albums, 22 million record sales, 500 million streams & 11 sold-out national arena tours under their belts.
So it was no surprise when the group announced their next venture would be a jukebox musical of their work, called Here & Now.
Kicking off its tour in Aylesbury earlier this summer (after a try out run in Birmingham late last year) Here & Now transports audiences into the world of seaside superstore Better Best Bargains.
What is Here & Now – The Steps Musical about?
Caz, about to turn the big five-o, is super happily married and has just been accepted to adopt (having longed for a child since the still-birth of a son several years ago).
With two week until her big birthday, she sets co-workers Robbie, Neeta and Vel, the task to find true happiness in their own lives. Commitment-phobe Robbie needs to find a boyfriend, Neeta needs to tell co-worker Ben that she has a crush on him, and Val needs to dump boyfriend Lesley as she doesn’t love him.
But things take a turn for the worse and Caz’s life is turned upside down, requiring her friends to come together and help each other through their troubles. To make things worse, the store is being closed down and they must find a way to stay.
With a Fisher Price set – mostly empty trolleys and no customers, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to these characters when they were told they were being closed down and the space turned in to luxury condos. It could have been fun to have customers in the store, interacting with the staff but instead it felt cold and lifeless – like a child’s Barbie play set.
When Caz finds out her husband doesn’t actually want children and is leaving her, she doesn’t seem particularly upset (given that two minutes before she gloats about being soooo happy) and seems more concerned that the adoption agency won’t let her become a single mother.
Who is in the cast of Here & Now – The Steps Musical?
The cast are mostly very good. Rebecca Lock (who leaves the show this weekend to start performances in the new musical Freaky Friday and will be replace by Lara Denning) gives powerhouse vocals, as does Jacqui Dubois (Ghost the Musical) as Vel. Blake Patrick Anderson (Be More Chill), as lovestruck Robbie is also great, giving a bubbly and endearing performance.
Ben Darcy (Pretty Woman) plays Ben and Lauren Woolf (I Should Be So Lucky) plays delivery driver Tracey alongside Rosie Singha as Neeta, Finty Williams as Patricia, River Medway as Jem, Chris Grahamson as Gareth, Edward Baker-Duly as Max and John Stacey as Lesley.
Steps’ hits which feature in the musical include:
- Tragedy/Heartbeat
- Stomp
- One For Sorrow
- Better Best Forgotten
- 5,6,7,8
- Last Thing On My Mind
- Love’s Got A Hold Of My Heart
- Chain Reaction
- Better The Devil You Know
The sound in the New Wimbledon Theatre was loud and shouty with vocals not always sounding amazing. This got better in Act 2 but the songs all sound the same (as pop music often does).
It feels like the writers have asked AI to write a musical based on Mamma Mia! but set in a supermarket. And whilst Mamma Mia! is good and has stood the test of time – do we really need another one?
If you love the band Steps then you’ll have a great time. The audience of whooped, talked and sang all the way through, just there for the songs and so the story didn’t really matter.
As jukebox musicals go, this one certainly shouldn’t aspire to go into the West End but on tour it will do just fine.
I took a chance on a happy ending but unfortunately Here & Now (for me) is better best forgotten. “Better Best Bargain Basement”.
★★
West End Wilma
Photos by Pamela Raith
Here & Now – The Steps Musical is touring the UK until May 2026.
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