I must be in a minority here as the 90s band, Steps, didn’t really register on my radar. I had obviously heard of them as they were regularly in the news for breaking up and getting back together, but their music seemed to be a bit bland, produced mainly to make money whilst providing youngsters with something to dance to – which lets me out – rather than stimulate the grey matter. The clue is in the name, especially when, as I have just found out by researching what I had missed, as a marketing ploy they included a copy of the dance steps performed in their videos with the single. It occurred to me as the evening progressed that the same ethos led to this juke box musical, based on their hits. There was no chart in the programme, however, depicting the moves we should be doing within the confines of rows of seats when it came to the dance section at the end. The show is not a documentary of the group, but a feel-good tale from book by Shaun Kitchener, based in a supermarket with the songs augmenting the action.
The brilliant Lara Denning as Caz
The main character, Caz, played by Lara Denning, works in a supermarket and is fast approaching her 50th birthday. To mark the occasion she and her husband, Gareth, Chris Grahamson, have decided to adopt a child, seemingly to replace her stillborn one from some years before. Being somewhat of a control freak, she also wants to get all of her colleagues matched up with partners before her big day. The processes involved in the aim reveal well hidden secrets and hitherto latent character traits.
There is also a subplot, whereby the grandson of the original supermarket owner has bought the business back from the company who took it over and has used both Caz and Patricia, the manageress, played by Sally Ann Matthews, to unwittingly help him in closing it down and turning it into a block of condominiums – I don’t know why they don’t speak English.
The cast in one of the dancing set pieces.
Needless to say, after a lot of shenanigans, everyone ends up with a partner – except for Caz, who splits up with her husband, but gets not one, but two adoptive babies. The future of the store is saved, and they all live happily ever after.
The show is basically a farce set to music divided up into set pieces, some of which work better than others. Lara Denning was superb as Caz, her singing utterly brilliant, especially in her second act solo, which brought the house down. On the flip side, there was a drag queen called Jem, played by River Medway, whose rendition of Chain Reaction was dire, the emphasis was more on the presentation than the ability. The audience seemed to love it, however, so that is all that matters.
The revolting cast – in a political sense, obviously!
The dialogue was good in parts with some killer lines but not enough to carry the rest. There is a scene outside the back of the supermarket where rubbish was being put into a large wheelie bin which had the name Trash Eddie on the side of it. It took a while until I realised that it was a lame pun on the group’s biggest hit Tragedy. Tragic indeed.
The dancing, choreographed by Matt Cole, was well executed throughout and the lighting, designed by Howard Hudson, changed the mood in an instant to accommodate the switches from Tesco to disco.
This is definitely one for the Steps fans and I am sure there are enough to make it a huge success, but to the casual audience member like myself, I found it rather juvenile. I don’t give star ratings to shows and I won’t start now, it was, however, a three watch-glance performance.
Here & Now runs at Leeds Grand Theatre until 10th May, 2026. For more information and to book, please go to https://leedsheritagetheatres.com/whats-on/here-and-now-2026/
To see what else is coming to Leeds heritage Theatres it is https://leedsheritagetheatres.com/whats-on/?genre=live
Photographs by Pamela Raith
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