Full cast announced for the UK & Ireland tour of HERE & NOW the STEPS musical
The producers of the brand-new musical HERE & NOW, presented by UK pop sensation, Steps, are delighted to announce that West End actress Lara Denning will take over the role of Caz from 11 November 2025. Rebecca Lock who currently plays Caz will leave the production on Sunday 9 November.
Lara Denning recently finished playing Anne Hathaway in the UK and Ireland tour of & Juliet. Her other theatre credits include Standby Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (Savoy Theatre), Miss Hedge in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Apollo Theatre), Doreen/Miss Elf in The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ (The Ambassadors & Menier Chocolate Factory), Mrs Wormwood and Miss Honey in Matilda (Cambridge Theatre), Mrs Bucket in Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), Lex Logan in Eugenius! (Turbine Theatre), Mrs Mullin in Carousel (Kilworth House Theatre), Miss Hedge in Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (UK Tour), Mrs Cratchit in Scrooge The Musical (Curve Theatre, Leicester), The Rocky Horror Show (European Tour), Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance (UK Tour), All the Fun of the Fair (UK Tour) and Dirty Dancing in Concert (UK Tour). Her TV and film credits include: Rosalind in I Came By (New Regency/Film4), singer for Matilda (Sony Pictures), Ruthless The Musical (BroadwayHD), Dick Whittington (UK cinema release/Kaleidoscope), Glass Body (short film), Leave a Light On (online concert), Menthos (commercial), and various recordings including The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾, The Little Big Things (promo), Toast of London (Channel 4) and Dear Evan Hansen (Noël Coward Theatre).
Ben Darcy (Pretty Woman, West End) will play Ben and Lauren Woolf (I Should Be So Lucky, UK Tour) will play Tracey alongside the previously announced principal cast members, Jacqui Dubois as Vel, Blake Patrick Anderson as Robbie, 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.
The cast is completed by Georgia Christofi (professional debut), Kade Ferraiolo (I Should Be So Lucky, UK Tour), Albert Green (The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, West End), Harry Jack (Les Misérables, West End), Casey Jay (Grease the Musical, Royal Caribbean), Charlie-Jay Johnson (Here & Now, Birmingham Alexandra Theatre), Rosemary Annabella Nkrumah (MAMMA MIA! The Party, O2 Arena), Dean Rickards (professional debut), Markus Södergren (Here & Now, Birmingham Alexandra Theatre), Genevieve Taylor (Wicked, West End) and Jessica Vaux (Starlight Express, Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre).
*Please note Finty Williams will be performing in the production until November 2025, with further casting to be announced in due course.
HERE & NOW previewed for three weeks at The Alexandra, Birmingham in November 2024. The musical was The Alexandra’s fastest selling on-sale in history, which saw 50% capacity sold within 24 hours.
Featuring Steps’ most beloved hit songs, HERE & NOW is produced by the band and ROYO with Pete Waterman and Fascination Management with an original book by Shaun Kitchener and is directed by Rachel Kavanaugh and choreographed by Olivier Award winning Matt Cole.
Welcome to seaside superstore Better Best Bargains, where it’s Friday night, the vibe is right, and everyone’s dancing in the aisles. But when Caz discovers the shelves are stocked with lies and betrayal, the summer of love she and her friends dreamed of suddenly feels like a tragedy. Have they all lost their chance of a ‘happy ever after’? Or does love have other plans in store…
Steps (Claire Richards, Faye Tozer, Ian ‘H’ Watkins’, Lee Latchford-Evans and Lisa Scott-Lee) 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. The band’s hits include #1 singles Tragedy/Heartbeat and Stomp, the gold certified One For Sorrow & Better Best Forgotten, the silver certified 5,6,7,8, Last Thing On My Mind, Love’s Got A Hold Of My Heart, Chain Reaction, all of which will feature in the musical alongside many more.
Steps’ 2017 comeback tour sold out all 300,000 tickets, making it one of the biggest pop tours of the year. The band have since continued to release new music including two further iTunes #1 singles, the Sia-penned What The Future Holds in 2020 and the Michelle Visage duet Heartbreak In This City in 2022. In 2022 Steps celebrated their 25th anniversary with a headline summer tour and released the #1 album Platinum Collection which means they join ABBA, Rolling Stones and Stereophonics as the only groups in UK history to score #1 albums in four consecutive decades.
HERE & NOW UK & Ireland Tour Dates
29 – 30 August 2025 Aylesbury Waterside Theatre
2 – 13 September Manchester Opera House
16 – 20 September Glasgow Kings Theatre
23 September – 4 October Dublin Bord Gais Energy Theatre
7 – 11 October Southend Cliffs Pavilion
14 – 19 October Woking New Victoria Theatre
21 – 26 October Aberdeen His Majesty’s Theatre
28 October– 2 November Newcastle Theatre Royal
4 – 9 November London New Wimbledon Theatre
11 – 16 November Nottingham Theatre Royal
18 – 22 November Sheffield Lyceum
25 – 29 November Liverpool Empire Theatre
2 – 13 December Theatre Royal Brighton
15 – 28 December Stockton Globe
20 – 24 January 2026 Southampton Mayflower Theatre
27 – 31 January Belfast Grand Opera House
3 – 7 February Cardiff Wales Millenium Centre
10 – 15 February York Grand Opera House
17 – 22 February Oxford New Theatre
24 – 1 March Edinburgh Playhouse
10 – 15 March Wolverhampton Grand
24 – 28 March Theatre Royal Plymouth
31 March – 4 April Milton Keynes Theatre
8 – 12 April Blackpool Opera House
14 – 19 April Norwich Theatre Royal
21 – 26 April Hull New Theatre
28 April – 3 May Leicester Curve
5 – 10 May Leeds Grand Theatre
12 – 16 May Canterbury Marlowe Theatre
