PRINCIPAL cast for the UK tour of the musical HERE & NOW, based on the songs of Steps, has been announced.

The tour kicks off in Aylesbury at the end of this summer and will be visiting Theatre Royal Plymouth for a six day run from March 24 next year.

Returning from the successful original run in Birmingham will be Rebecca Lock (ELF – The Musical, West End; School of Rock, UK Tour) as Caz, Finty Williams (The Baker’s Wife, Menier Chocolate Factory The Ocean at the End of the Lane, National Theatre Tour) as Patricia, Blake Patrick Anderson (Emojiland, West End; RENT, Hope Mill Theatre) as Robbie, River Medway (fan favourite on the third season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK) as Jem, Edward Baker Duly (The King and I, Broadway and West End, The Third Man, Menier Chocolate Factory) as Max and John Stacey (Kiss Me Kate, Barbican; My Fair Lady, The Coliseum) as Lesley.

Joining the principal cast are new cast members Jacqui Dubois (Ghost The Musical UK tour) as Vel, Chris Grahamson (NOW That’s What I Call A Musical UK and Ireland tour) as Gareth and Rosie Singha (&Juliet UK and Ireland tour) as Neeta.

Further casting will be announced closer to the production start date.

Featuring Steps’ most beloved hit songs, HERE & NOW is from an original book by Shaun Kitchener and is produced by the band and ROYO with Pete Waterman.

It will be directed by Rachel Kavanaugh, with choreography by Olivier Award-winning Matt Cole and Matt Spencer-Smith as musical supervisor, orchestrator and arranger.

Welcome to seaside superstore 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…

Steps (Claire Richards, Faye Tozer, Ian ‘H’ Watkins, Lee Latchford-Evans and Lisa Scott-Lee) are the UK’s most successful mixed sex pop group of all time, with 14 top five singles, four number one albums, 22 million record sales, 500 million streams and 11 sold-out national arena tours under their belts.

The band’s hits include number one singles Tragedy/Heartbeat and Stomp, the gold certified One For Sorrow and 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.

The band’s 2017 comeback tour sold out all 300,000 tickets, making it one of the biggest pop tours of the year.

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.

Tickets for the show are available now from https://theatreroyal.com/whats-on/here-now/.