Wales Millennium Centre
Before the lights even dim, the audience is politely asked not to sing along until the encore. It’s a request that gives the game away immediately. This is not really theatre so much as a Steps singalong show, shrink-wrapped in the flimsiest of stories, ticking off a grab-bag of contemporary angst boxes before arriving, triumphantly, at collective pop catharsis. Story, here, is packaging; the real product is nostalgia, camp pleasure and the thrill of hearing familiar tunes belted out loud.
There are some odd contrasts in a show that lurches from deep anguish to hysterical nonsense, from the lead character Caz singing a lament to a stillborn son (yes, “You are only a heartbeat away” is reimagined here) to appearing in the line-dancing to 5,6,7,8 with a giant cardboard cactus balanced on her head.
Welcome to Here & Now, a show that ricochets wildly between heartfelt grief and full-fat pop absurdity without ever pausing to apologise. But then why should it? It is a feelgood bit of fluff that brightens up a grotty February evening.
Lara Denning
Directed by Rachel Kavanaugh, with a book by Shaun Kitchener, Here & Now joins the long line of jukebox musicals mining pop back catalogues for theatrical gold. This one raids the hits of Steps, relocating them to the luridly coloured world of Better Best Bargains, a seaside supermarket rendered in retina-burning pinks and blues. Here, best friends Caz (Lara Denning), Vel (Jacqui Dubois), Robbie (Dean Rickards) and Neeta (Rosie Singha) dream of transformation during a “summer of love”. We had a cast change after the interval with Rosemary Annabella Nkrumah taking over the role of Vel. That summer of love means contending with anxiety, adoption agencies, sexuality, useless men and daddy issues. Looming over it all is the baddie: a wealthy, smarmy landlord who turns out to be, brace yourselves, played as a well-spoken white man. What a shock.
The plot races along towards a conclusion so obvious you could spot it from the frozen foods aisle. Emotional turns are broad, character development thin, and everything is designed to serve the next musical number. But as with all jukebox musicals, the story is merely a delivery system. Luckily, Steps’ catalogue is well stocked. “One for Sorrow” lends itself neatly to toxic reunions and “Scared of the Dark” injects galloping drama where it is sorely needed. The show is at its most confident when it leans fully into daftness: a barnstorming “Chain Reaction” atop a washing machine, danced by a drag queen who appears dressed as a frozen bag out of a freezer, is gloriously ridiculous.
River Medway
There is a noticeable reliance on one strong singing voice. Denning’s Caz increasingly dominates, turning the piece into something close to a one-woman show, albeit supported by fine vocal work from her three supermarket pals. The ensemble numbers fizz with energy, the choreography is relentlessly vigorous, and the costumes are knowingly silly, echoing the camp excess of the original band. Stripping away the jollity of the show, Lara Denning is a powerful singer and delivers those Steps numbers with panache.
At the end of the day all that mattered is we have the hits: including “Tragedy”, “Deeper Shade of Blue” and the cover version of “Better the Devil You Know”.
As one audience member observed on the way out, “Well, that was a good way of spending a Tuesday evening.” Which neatly sums it up. Here & Now is glossy, noisy and emotionally scattershot, but it knows exactly what it is: a Steps singalong in theatrical clothing, garishly wrapped, unapologetically camp, and engineered to send you home humming.
Until February 7.
