Here And Now - The Steps Musical - Milton Keynes Theatre

Here & Now – The Steps Musical arrives in Milton Keynes from Tue 31 Mar – Sat 4 Apr – it’d be a TRAGEDY to miss it!

It’s Friday night, and the vibe is right as Caz and her fabulous friends dream of the perfect summer of love.  But when Caz discovers her ‘happy ever after’ is a lie, and her friends attempts at romance are a total tragedy, they wonder – will love ever get a hold on their hearts?  Or should they all just take a chance on a happy ending…

Caz works in a supermarket.  She is good friends with Vel and along with Neeta and Robbie they make a pact on a pineapple to find their real happy ending.  Things start to happen.  Caz and her husband break up two weeks before her 50^th birthday, Vel splits up with her fella, Robbie likes to play the field rather than gets close to people until he meets a local drag queen and Neeta is crazy about Ben but for some reason cannot speak to him.  On top of this the manager is secretly sleeping with a Frenchman called Henri and a shopper called Max befriends Caz.  Who knew so much drama goes on at your local supermarket?!

Before the show starts you can see the set is giving nods to Steps songs.  The shopping aisles are 5,6,7,8. There are H stands for How cheap? signs, and I did enjoy the sets and how that works on stage.  There is some great choreography that wouldn’t be out of place on Strictly and at heart this is a feel-good musical.  It's very camp and there is dancing with holiday inflatables, a drag queen and its light, bright and jam-packed full of Steps songs.

Caz is played by Lara Denning and she is absolutely fantastic.  She has a powerhouse of a voice and the way she plays Caz let the audience know what kind of person she is.  Someone who cares for everyone else.  She really wants her friends to have a happy ending.  Lara lets the audience in to her private worries and what really matters to Caz.

The show is fun and of course the medley at the end has everyone up doing their favourite Steps moves to the songs they all know and love, but for me something didn’t quite hit the mark.  I love Steps and was really looking forward to this.  I know it’s a feel-good musical, but I didn’t feel that invested in the characters, felt the choreography should be a little tighter than it was and I realise that Steps songs are as difficult as Abba to deliver on stage.  I wanted to love it but found it hard to relate to the characters and their stories.

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 On My Heart, Chain Reaction, all of which feature in the musical alongside many more.  If you love Steps, you should love this.

Here And Now is at Milton Keynes Theatre until 4 April and then continues its UK tour.