Here & Now uses its camp caricatures to illustrate a perfect demonstration of class consciousness.

There is a particular type of show that is associated with the jukebox musical. Taking the hit songs of a beloved band or artist and throwing them ad nauseum into a loosely-constructed narrative which serves only as a vessel to facilitate a myriad of pop hits. They are bright, breezy, and usually end in a dance party.

Here & Now, the Steps jukebox musical touring the UK with a stretch at Southampton's Mayflower Theatre, isn't not this (especially for that last point), but what comes across as far too sickly sweet for my taste elsewhere is circumvented entirely. A show that cultivates its camp into something delicious. 

We open in Better Best Bargains, a seaside supermarket, where Kas (Lara Denning) is preparing to adopt a child. However, husband Gareth (Chris Grahamson) unceremoniously ditches her in the depths of a midlife crisis - and we know we're supposed to dislike him because he's introduced wearing lycra. This puts a stop to Kas’ ever-present spring in her step, and her plans for a ‘summer of love’ for her three friends at BBB. 

Neeta (Rosie Singha) is coached into confessing her crush to coworker Ben (Ben Darcy). Vel (Jacqui Dubois) is talked into ending her loveless relationship with oddball car-park crusader Lesley (John Stacey). Robbie (Blake Patrick Anderson) is steered away from hookup culture and toward a successful relationship with iconic local drag artist Gem (River Medway). 

The three relationships serve as the seminal subplots that repeatedly rear their heads, and a lovely throughline to interweave through the narrative. Some moments are over-emphasised and over-played - there’s perhaps one too many scenes of Neeta falling over herself in ill attempts to impress Ben, declaring that she’ll speak to him the next day, and then not doing that. Luckily, Singha is so charming in the role that it does not reflect badly on the character. 

The main narrative though, still deals with Kas in the fallout of her relationship implosion, falling into the clutches of machiavellian, devious, wily Max (his over-exaggerated british upperclassman accent as he’s introduced as “the Meryl Streep of the amateur dramatics society” had me belly-laughing). To little surprise, his initial charming facade is quickly shed into fiendish financier, and Kas is drawn deeper into blackmail and deceit.

It’s this interaction that had me really appreciating Here & Now in comparison to other musicals of the same ilk. While I won’t badmouth anything in name, other jukebox musicals have overtures of upper class holidays abroad in the sun to facilitate their discography, with unrealistic drama and woe, which has put me at arms-length - a musical at odds with its audience. Here & Now is similar levels of camp, but camp of a class-conscious level. 

The cast of characters are minimum wage workers forced to beg for a raise in a desperate bid to have enough financial security to raise a child. The supermarket at threat of closing is a tangible threat to livelihoods, and the show examines Kas’ impossible decision of whether to stay with her friends in unemployment or make a deal with the devil and threaten those same friendships.

There’s also a solidarity between the class content and the queer content. There’s a delightful amount of gay celebration that resonates throughout, notably the standout sequence as Gem performs a showstopping drag number to “Chain Reaction”. It’s also something that’s lovely and normalised - a previously-assumed straight character does develop a crush on a co-worker of the same gender, but it’s never treated as a coming-out moment or for shock value, rather a minor occurrence of little surprise to their friends.

The gay experience is still mined for some pathos though, as Robbie’s emotional crux is coming to terms with being abandoned by his father in his childhood, presumably for his sexuality. It’s a rare quiet moment, all the more impactful contrasted with the bombastic musical numbers surrounding it (almost begs belief that this is the same musical that had the half-price hoe-down in full cowboy gear during “5 6 7 8”).

It goes without saying that fans of Steps are going to devour this front-to-back, but for people wanting a silly, witty, and heartfelt musical, this is a wholehearted recommendation.

Here & Now plays at Mayflower Theatre until the 24th of January, and you can book your tickets here: https://www.mayflower.org.uk/whats-on/here-and-now-the-steps-musical-2026/