Steps: Manchester to kick off UK tour of the band's new musical based on their hits
Correspondent Mel Barham spoke to Steps about their new official musical 'Here & now' coming to the North West in 2025
They are officially the UK’s most successful mixed sex pop group of all time, but now Steps are hoping to wow audiences with a new musical based on their best-selling hits.
HERE & NOW is based in a fictional seaside superstore Better Best Bargains, and features the band's most beloved songs.
It is about to embark on a major UK and Ireland tour next year - kicking off its run at Manchester's Opera House in September 2025, before showing at Liverpool's Empire Theatre in November 2025.
The band don't star in the musical, but they have helped produce it alongside ROYO and Pete Waterman.
The production has been written by Hollyoaks writer Shaun Kitchener and is directed by Rachel Kavanaugh and choreographed by Olivier Award winning Matt Cole.
"It's very exciting" said Faye Tozer from the band. "This is a project we've been dreaming about for about 7 years."
Fellow bandmate Ian "H" Watkins said "It is so much more than a juke-box musical."
"There's a story that is really heartfelt. There are so many relationships in the story that people can relate to, there are so many amazing jokes and there's a Steps mega-mix at the end."
Faye continued: "We wanted to think about what Steps fans would want and what they would relate to.
"It is very down to earth, its really funny and I think we always knew our songs would lend ourselves to a musical because of their lyrical content but its amazing how Shaun Kitchener, our writer, has been able to fashion the story around to make our songs feel like they were written for this.
"We're absolutely blown away with how this has turned out."
Lee Latchford-Evans who was born in Chester and grew up in Ellesmere Port, said: "It's so uplifting, it's so heartfelt, there's some sad moments, there's something for everybody."
'Here & Now' is set in a seaside superstore called 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?
The musical will tour around the UK for 10 months, beginning in Manchester at the Opera House from 3-13th September 2025.
It is then set to return to the North West at Liverpool's Empire Theatre 25-29th November 2025.
Tickets go on sale on 20th November.
Steps have had 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.
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