★★★ Here & Now: Catchy Pop Hits 'Steps' Onto the Stage

The Cast of Here & Now, Photography by Pamela Raith

Based on the music of 00’s pop juggernauts Steps, Here & Now tells the story of four friends working at a seaside supermarket, as they promise to take a chance on a happy ending and enjoy a summer of love by finding happiness before ringleader Caz turns 50.

Vel wants to leave her husband, Neeta wants to pluck up the courage to flirt with a colleague, Robbie wants to stop pushing away potential boyfriends and Caz is desperate to adopt. But the course of love and friendship doesn’t run smoothly, especially when, thanks to Caz, the shop faces closure.

Caz is played warmly by Lara Denning and her powerful vocals are a highlight in this production as she convinces as the main protagonist. She is ably supported by Jacqui Dubois as Vel, who also belts out the numbers with aplomb and brings real humanity to her character. Both Rosie Singha and Blake Patrick Anderson are fun as Neeta and Robbie, whilst Finty Williams as supermarket manager Patricia easily steals both her scenes and a number of the laughs. 

Whilst the overall feel of the show is very much that of standard musical theatre fayre, and as the common tropes of love and friendship hurtle towards their inevitable happy ending, the story deals unusually with some slightly darker themes – the loss of a child, emerging sexual identity and parental abandonment all feature in the mix, bringing something different to the story and giving the characters a bit more depth than you would expect. It is also noteworthy that it was a pleasure to see such a range of representation both on stage and within the storyline.

As with most jukebox musicals, the songs come thick and fast, and there is no shortage of hits that carry the show along and which nestle nicely into the narrative. Bursting onto the stage with the opening number, 'Stomp', the cast rattled through the hits  - most of the familiar ones such as 'Better Best Forgotten', 'The Last Thing On My Mind', 'Tragedy' and 'Deeper Shade of Blue' were all present and correct, but there were a handful of more recent songs, including 'Scared of the Dark', 'Neon Blue' and 'Something In Your Eyes', and some lesser known songs like 'The Story of a Heart'.

Love them or loath them, there is little denying that these are catchy and well-crafted pop songs which bring a breezy and upbeat feel to the show, adding to its appeal. Even if you are not a fan of, or familiar with, the music, it is well suited to the show overall, and the songs blend nicely into the story with only "5,6,7,8" feeling shoehorned in by way of a rather silly plot MacGuffin.

The set design provided a detailed supermarket setting and looked authentic, whilst providing the cast with a large, workable dance space and allowing the musical numbers to flood the stage with energy. There was a nice attention to detail overall, my favourite being the large waste bin behind the supermarket run by a company called “Trash-Eddy”, in a cheeky reference to one of Steps’ biggest hits.

There were, however, aspects of the production that made it feel slightly one-note at times. The use of the branding of the show, in particular the over-saturated pink and blue color palette, uniformly dressed cast members and the lack of variety of the locations contained within the story made the production feel a little repetitive.

Whilst the choreography was energetic and the cast committed, the routines were starting to feel overly familiar by the time the first act drew to a close. There was very little variation in dance styles throughout, quickly leading to the impression that you were watching a very slight variation of a dance routine that had come before, a feeling which was enhanced by having so little variety in the set to enable elevated platforms or different areas of the stage to be used to create a more layered look.

But Here & Now was never meant to be life-changing theatre, but is a fast paced, fun filled, energetic show with a breezy script, a slew of pop bubblegum classics and some terrific performances. If you are looking for an undemanding evening of fun  and a great night’s entertainment, then you could do a lot worse than this pop-tastic production.