UK pop band Steps announce the world premiere of Here & Now, a brand-new musical using their iconic music, with an original book by Shaun Kitchener.
Here & Now will open at The Alexandra, Birmingham for a limited engagement from 9 – 24 November 2024. Featuring Steps’ most beloved hit songs, Here & Now is produced by the band and ROYO with Pete Waterman, and will be directed by Rachel Kavanaugh, with choreography by Olivier Award winning Matt Cole.
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…
Steps said, “We’ve been lucky to do many things together as a band, but the question we get asked again and again is ‘where is the Steps musical?’ Well…it’s finally here and we couldn’t be more excited. We’ve searched for the perfect story for our music and we’ve found it in the aisle of a seaside superstore, where four friends set out on their own Summer of Love. It’s a story of friendship, romance and community; packed with our biggest hits and sure to have everybody laughing, crying and dancing in the aisles. We can’t wait to open the doors later this year, and see you there!”
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 Of My Heart, Chain Reaction, all of which will feature in the musical alongside many more.
Steps’ 2017 comeback tour sold out all 300,000 tickets, making it one of the biggest pop tours of the year. The band have since continued to release new music including two further iTunes #1 singles, the Sia-penned What The Future Holds in 2020 and the Michelle Visage duet Heartbreak In This City in 2022. In 2022 Steps celebrated their 25th anniversary with a headline summer tour and released the #1 album Platinum Collection which means they join ABBA, Rolling Stones and Stereophonics as the only groups in UK history to score #1 albums in four consecutive decades.
Choreography is by Matt Cole, set design is by Tom Rogers, costume design is by Gabriella Slade, sound design by Adam Fisher with casting by Will Burton for Grindrod Burton Casting.