Here & Now has finally arrived in Scotland, with a book by Shaun Kitchener, direction from Rachel Kavanaugh and boot skootin’ music from pop band Steps. The musical plays the Edinburgh Playhouse until Sunday 1st March 2026.
The story follows supermarket colleagues and friends Caz, Vel, Neeta and Robbie who promise to have the Summer Of Love before Caz turns 50 in two weeks. Within this time the group’s lives are turned upside down, and their bond is tested when the future of their supermarket is looking bleak.
The cast of this production tackle one vocally demanding song after another. Steps’ music are floor fillers, they’re designed to bring energy, with belting almost the standard for each song to reach the sound of a five piece band. This demands a hell of a set of pipes when tackling them live. Lara Denning does the heavy lifting here, her vocals are simply incredible. One For Sorrow has never been sang to poignantly and with such power. Her portrayal of Caz is endearing and captures the audience’s hearts, even if in terms of plot there’s little weight for her to play with. The conflict with partner Gareth (played by Chris Grahamson) is slightly too camp to truly make an impact, but right enough that’s the whole point, the audience lap up the farcical scene that surrounds Better The Devil You Know with nostalgic glee. Lara genuinely is one of the most talented leading ladies touring the UK right now, this production allows her to stretch and showcase that.
Another heavy lifter in punching the vocals is Blake Patrick Anderson, who plays Robbie. The music sits awkwardly on the male vocal range but Blake effortlessly tackles one belter after another. Whilst also portraying a conflicted and paranoid character that truly does resonate with the audience when we see his cheeky chap side. Partnered with River Medway’s Jem, they make for a brilliant couple. River themselves are a force to be reckoned with within this musical. You fear that they’ve not been used to their full potential… and then act two comes along and we are gifted with a show-stopping performance of Chain Reaction. A personal highlight of this production.
The other half of the two friends is made up of Jacqui Dubois as Vel and Rosie Singha as Neeta. Jacqui’s portrayal brings comedy, warmth and comfort, oddly in 2026 we rarely see a character arc such as Vel’s present on stage and it’s refreshing in the nuanced approach Jacqui has brought to the journey. Rosie does well as Neeta to wring all she can from the rather shallow character she has been given, her voice beautifully compliments each number she is featured in, especially Something In Your Eyes, the brilliant duet with geeky love interest Ben (played by Ben Darcy).
Supporting the farcical antics on stage is Sally Ann Matthews’ nymphomaniac Patricia, the humour and absurdity of the character works really well and tickles the audience. Lauren Woolf as Tracey also brings laughter with her punchy one liners, and makes for a great supporting character to Jacqui’s Vel. John Stacey’s desperate Lesley, makes an impact with his flamboyant and humorous portrayal.
Edward Baker-Duly as Max is a great antagonist, with an underlining seedy quality, which makes the audience wish to Max see get a harsher comeuppance.
The ensemble for this production tackle complex vocals, non-stop brilliant choreography and constant presence on stage. The ensemble are as follows – Georgia Christofi, Kade Ferraiolo, Albert Green, Harry Jack, Casey Jay, Charlie-Jay Johnson (On stage swing), Rosemary Annabelle Nkrumah, Jack Palmer (Off stage swing), Dean Rickards, Markus Södergren (On stage swing), Genevieve Taylor, Jessica Vaux,
Shaun Kitchener’s book has a really good concept, especially when it comes to the diversity of relationships being explored on stage. The premise of the supermarket as the setting of this musical is strong and felt new, yet it didn’t feel like it was utilised to its full potential. It feels like there is a lot packed in with not much depth when exploring, it feels like there needs to be more fun had in the dialogue, to match the energy the performers are bringing to this production. To add to this, the subject of miscarriage and baby loss seemed handled with a lack of care, it’s a very sensitive subject that could affect members of the audience. It felt like a jarring element of the narrative and out of place within this style of jukebox musical.
Step’s music is meant for musical theatre, it feels right to have these songs sang on a stage by a cast. Matt Spencer-Smith’s Musical Supervision and arrangement really creates a great sounding show and translates these hits to stage brilliantly. That being said, changing the tempo for some songs, differentiating the sound for some more of the tracks in comparison to the original, and adding more complex harmonies for the ensemble would have really enriched this production more. It felt that the placement of the vocals hadn’t been amended to compensate for this show being performed 8 times a week and the strain that could present. There is the creative license for the songs to sound different to the originals released by steps and this was proven with One For Sorrow and Chain Reaction, there is a want for more theatricality in the rest of the numbers, which wouldn’t do them a discredit.
Rachel Kavanaugh’s direction was contemporary, slick and had excellent pace, the transitions between scenes and constant movement on stage made the production an easy watch. Coupled with Matt Cole’s energetic and complex choreography, the pair of creatives do well to turn the volume up to eleven and make this a really engaging production.
Tom Rodgers’ colourful set really works and gives us a great quality standard to the show. Paired with Howard Hudson’s dazzling concert style lighting design and Gabriella Slade’s brilliant exaggerated costume design, this is a visually beautiful show.
You really find yourself rooting for Here & Now to be the next big hit jukebox musical. It’s a fun, toe-tapping and camp show, which doesn’t take itself seriously. Yet there are a few missteps and stumbles present within this production. This by no means makes the show a tragedy; there is a really good concept here that needs ironing out for the potential to be fully realised.
Nevertheless, this is a musical designed for fans of Steps to revisit their favourite tracks in a show guaranteed to leave you dancing out the theatre, and that’s exactly what this production does.
Get tickets here – https://thestepsmusical.com/#tour
Theatre Scotland 
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