Better best forgotten? Here & Now – The Steps Musical plays The Alexandra Birmingham ahead of a 2025 UK tour
“Rompin’ stompin’, pumpin’ jumpin’, slidin’ glidin’, here we go”
Heaven knows theatre producers love a jukebox musical, especially when it comes to pop music. This year has already seen I Should Be So Lucky and Now That’s What I Call A Musical, neither of which managed to tempt me despite very much being a fan of both musicals and cheesy pop music. The issue lies in how much of a musical has actually been developed around the catalogue, if there’s any real story to go along with the songs and too often, the answer is no there isn’t.
This is all a long-winded way of getting to being unable to resist a Steps-themed musical that just happened to be playing in a city where I had another engagement which, naturally, has a plot entirely governed by which Steps song can be crowbarred in next. Does it matter? Kinda, it’s facile and flimsy in the extreme. Does it matter after interval cocktails (and pre-show ones, let’s be honest) and the requisite day-glo end-of-show megamix? Sign me up to be an overzealous influencer rightaway 😂.
Which sums up Here & Now – The Steps Musical really – best enjoyed tipsy and dancing along as if we were all in G-A-Y once again. There’s been weaker cases made to get you into a theatre and there are high points in Rachel Kavanaugh’s production, mainly around a cast full of powerhouse vocalists. Rebecca Lock leads from the front with immense charisma as Caz, an employee at seaside supermarket Better Best Bargains who is approaching 50 with excitement in her heart as it looks like her hopes of adopting with a hunky new love might come true.
Tragedy befalls that dream though and with her fellow co-workers Vel (Sharlene Hector), Neeta (Hiba Elchikhe) and Robbie (Blake Patrick Anderson), all of whom are wondering what the future holds, a chain reaction of events mean they decide on having a summer of love even though happiness seems like the last thing on their mind. This is kinda how Shaun Kitchener’s book goes, passing time with Steps-based mentions and Victoria Wood pastiche until the next song can be shoehorned in.
With that, such a level of LGBTQ+ positive representation in a big ticket show is always appreciated – even in as thin a story as this. Hector and Anderson get to emote well, Finty Williams is underused but very funny as boss Patricia and Elchikhe really ought to be better known for her talent is exceptional. And as you consider Tom Rogers’ set design with its moving tills and Matt Cole’s choreography with its nods to the original moves from Steps’ videos and Gabriella Slade’s costumes which also take influence from them, it almost feels churlish to criticise something so determindly light-hearted.
But fun doesn’t have to mean flimsy, camp doesn’t have to mean cheesy. The show evens points this up itself with a glorious washing machine-based routine for ‘Chain Reaction’ led by River Medway’s Jem which absolutely hits the nail on the head in a rare moment where everything clicks for the show. As it stands, I think a fair amount of refinement and reworking needs to be done before Here & Now heads out on its ambitious 2025 tour. It will need more than vibes and a mgeamix in order to capture audiences beyond those who were learning the 5,6,7,8 line dance moves than 25 years ago.
