During the late 90s and early 2000s, the dance-pop group Steps was a mighty presence in the British charts. They accumulated two number-one albums in the UK and 14 consecutive UK top-5 singles, including two number ones. They were juggernauts of lightweight pop. It is perhaps a surprise that it took until 2024 for a musical to be based on their hits. Now, writer Shaun Kitchener brings enough campness to keep Alan Carr and Julian Clary in work for decades.
Here & Now, the show everyone was waiting for, is at Milton Keynes Theatre as part of a UK tour. So, the question is: has it been worth the wait?
Here & Now is, fundamentally, a ridiculous concept that should not work. Set in a supermarket, yes, a supermarket, our eclectic cast of characters go through the typical dramas of many a musical as love and drama unfold against a backdrop of jukebox music. It should never work, but it does, extremely well in fact.
A huge amount of the success here has to go to writer Shaun Kitchener, who clearly knows both the audience this show will reach and what works alongside Steps' discography. He has created broadly drawn characters full of energy, fun, and just a little dramatic tension to keep this very fast-paced story going. Multiple love threads weave through the piece, and a suitable evil baddie is introduced. It really is, despite my early reservations, quite brilliant.
The cast is also on the same wavelength as what this show needs, and is led by the always-reliable Lara Denning as Caz, everyone’s best friend at Best Better Bargains. She is instantly likeable, full of fun and quickly the audience's best friend as well. Denning is also vocally incredible, switching from the typically big Steps numbers to the more subdued ones with ease.
All of the main cast are brilliant with their characters, including Rosie Sigha’s warm and fun Neeta, and Jacqui Dubois’ anchor of a character, Vel, who has a hidden secret beyond her current partner, Lesley. Edward Baker-Duly provides the style as the swarth but also slightly slimy Max.
All of the supporting cast provide a solid backdrop to the show, with River Medway, a particularly strong Jem, getting a show-stopping moment with his dramatic, eye-catching performance of Chain Reaction. Chris Grahamson’s Gareth glides from a rather nondescript character to a brilliant later appearance in Better The Devil You Know, and John Stacey is tremendously fun as Lesley in his few scene-stealing appearances.
Tom Rogers' set is eye-popping in colour, a few Steps in-jokes, including the addition of aisles 5, 6, 7, 8, and is simple enough to never restrict the pace.
Here & Now never has any full blackouts for scene changes, always a winner for me. Gabriella Slade has used the novel supermarket theme to go wild with the costume design, with bold colour and design on the uniforms, borrowing very dramatically from the colours favoured by Steps themselves.
Director Rachel Kavanaugh is clearly having great fun directing the piece, with this quirky locale providing a different concept for musical theatre, so, alongside Matt Cole’s quite brilliant choreography, my first sighting of shopping trolley dance rountines and conveyer belts
5, 6, 7, 8 rountines, the whole piece is magically bizarre on the eye. You also cannot beat Kitchener’s sheer cheekiness in raising the ending of the first act to true
Les Misérables-style revolution drama.
Here & Now is quite brilliant entertainment. While it is never going to be a five-star blockbuster, fully entertaining beyond anyone needing to be a huge Steps fan, I would challenge anyone to have quite as much fun at the theatre as this gem of a show provides.
Surreal, yes, but Here & Now is joyful and uplifting entertainment.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Performance reviewed: Tuesday 31st March, 2026 at the Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes.
Photographs: Pamela Raith Photography
%20as%20Jem%20in%20HERE%20&%20NOW,%20credit%20Pamela%20Raith%201.jpg)
