Here & Now: The Steps Musical
Rating: ★★★★
Venue: New Victoria Theatre, Woking
Cast:  Rebecca Lock, Finty Williams, Blake Patrick Anderson, River Medway, Edward Baker Duly, John Stacey, Jacqui Dubois, Chris Grahamson, Rosie Singha, Ben Darcy and Lauren Woolf 

Welcome to seaside superstore Better Best Bargains, where it's Friday night, the vibe is right, and everyone's dancing in the aisles. But when Caz discovers the shelves are stocked with lies and betrayal, the summer of love she and her friends dreamed of suddenly feels like a tragedy. Have they all lost their chance of a 'happy ever after'? Or does love have other plans in store…?

Here & Now: The Steps Musical has opened in Woking on the first leg of its UK tour and is exactly the level of chaos you’d expect it to be. Produced by Steps themselves, the show contains 21 of their songs with the iconic dance routines woven into original choreography by Matt Cole and Jane McMurtrie. 

Set in a supermarket called Better Best Bargains in a small seaside town, the show follows Caz (Rebecca Lock), Vel (Jacqui Dubois), Neeta (Rosie Singha), and Robbie (Blake Patrick Anderson) in a friendship pact leading up to Caz’s 50th birthday. Carrying messages about love and friendship, this show is mindlessly entertaining and pure ridiculous joy. 

The type of show that this is calls for a storyline that is fairly basic without a huge amount of substance, and Shaun Kitchener’s book does that well. With just enough content to keep audiences entertained but not too much that it takes away from the main focus of the production which is undoubtedly the musical numbers. The choreography was absolutely central to this show for me, Cole & McMurtrie’s dance numbers injecting glitz and glamour into every second of the production. 

Steps have some very vocally big songs and the four main cast members more than live up to the challenge. Stand out numbers for me are Rebecca Lock’s heart wrenching rendition of ‘One For Sorrow’, the ensemble number ‘Neon Blue’, and ‘Scared of the Dark’ where audiences find out just how talented of a vocalist Rosie Singha really is. 

Tom Rogers and Gabriella Slade’s set and costume designs boast plenty of neon and glitz, leaving a signature Steps mark. Matt Spencer-Smith has done some sorcery with the musical arrangements, especially the curtain call mega-mix which was a highlight of the evening. 

Here & Now makes for a fabulous night out and is heading on tour across the UK so get yourself down to a Better Best Bargains near you because aisles 5, 6 ,7 & 8 are open for business!