Review: Steps musical Here & Now at Milton Keynes Theatre

Claire Richards, Faye Tozer, Ian ‘H’ Watkins, Lee Latchford-Evans and Lisa Scott-Lee formed the UK’s most successful mixed sex pop group of all time in the 90s, with 14 top-five singles, 4 number-one albums, 22 million record sales, 500 million streams and 11 sold-out national arena tours under their belts.

The band’s hits include Tragedy, Better Best Forgotten, 5,6,7,8, Last Thing On My Mind, Love’s Got A Hold On My Heart, Chain Reaction, all of which featured during Tuesday night’s production of Here & Now, which is on its first UK & Ireland tour.

The plot – such as there is – has nothing to do with Steps themselves. Instead it focuses on a bunch of friends who all work at seaside supermarket Better Best Bargains and the woeful state of their love lives.

The lead character, store worker Caz, is played by Lara Denning, who is approaching her 50th birthday and is determined for her chums to enjoy a summer of romance.

From the opening number where the cast use trolleys and shopping baskets as part of their dance routine, you could tell this was a show which definitely wasn’t going to take itself seriously. In fact, it is downright silly a lot of a time and you won’t be able to stop yourself regularly cracking a smile – whether that’s at the multitude of one-liners, the crazy neon costumes or antics of the energetic performers.

There’s so much going – sometimes almost too much and certain moments feel a little chaotic – but you’ve just got to sit back, embrace the madness and have fun.

While I felt the songs were a bit of a mixed bag vocally, there were some real highlights including many of the ballads, plus the well-known hits Tragedy and 5,6,7,8 – the latter taking place during a “half price hoe-down” in the store.

Something In Your Eyes by employees Ben (Ben Darcy) and Neeta (Rosie Singha), which sees them finally admit their feelings for each other by the back door commercial bin, was brilliantly entertaining.

I thought that was just about as daft as it could get – until later when Chain Reaction is performed we see a drag queen emerge from a freezer dressed as a bag of frozen food!

The songs were slid in imaginatively to fit the storyline, with Better The Devil You Know rather apt when Caz is about to get back together with husband Gareth who had previously run off with Cheryl from the chippy.

In amongst all this hilarity, the issues of stillbirth, grief and the urge to adopt a child, were underlying themes that provided moments of poignancy.

The chemistry between the cast meant there was a believable camaraderie between the fellow workers.

And you could almost feel the hurt they endured when they found out that Caz had played a part in allowing Max (Edward Baker-Duly) to force store manager Patricia to sell the supermarket so he could turn the land into flashy apartments.

As well as Lara Denning as the strong lead, I particularly enjoyed Sally Ann Matthews as Patricia, and John Stacey as Lesley – who goes down on one-knee to shock Vel (Jacqui Dubois) in a rather unconventional relationship development.

By the end of the megamix finale, the actors must have all been exhausted, such was the workout they’d been given by the physically demanding choreography.

So overall, is this brand new musical a bit of a Tragedy that is Better Best Forgotten? Certainly not for Steps fans. And for anyone else thinking of going along, just take a chance on a happy ending as you’re pretty likely to come out of the theatre with a smile on your face.

Book your tickets now at ATGTICKETS.COM/MiltonKeynes. The show is here in MK until Saturday, April 4.