Full cast announced for Here & Now UK & Ireland Tour

The producers of the brand-new musical HERE & NOW, presented by UK pop sensation Steps, are delighted to announce the full cast for the UK & Ireland tour, which opens at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre on 29 August and will continue until 16 May 2026 at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury.

Ben Darcy (Pretty Woman, West End) will play Ben and Lauren Woolf (I Should Be So Lucky, UK Tour) will play Tracey alongside the previously announced principal cast members Rebecca Lock* as Caz, Jacqui Dubois as Vel, Blake Patrick Anderson as Robbie, Rosie Singha as Neeta, Finty Williams* as Patricia, River Medway as Jem, Chris Grahamson as Gareth, Edward Baker-Duly as Max and John Stacey as Lesley.

The cast is completed by Georgia Christofi (professional debut), Kade Ferraiolo (I Should Be So Lucky, UK Tour), Albert Green (The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, West End), Harry Jack (Les Misérables, West End), Casey Jay (Grease the Musical, Royal Caribbean), Charlie-Jay Johnson (Here & Now, Birmingham Alexandra Theatre), Rosemary Annabella Nkrumah (MAMMA MIA! The Party, O2 Arena), Dean Rickards (professional debut), Markus Södergren (Here & Now, Birmingham Alexandra Theatre), Genevieve Taylor (Wicked, West End) and Jessica Vaux (Starlight Express, Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre).

Featuring Steps’ most beloved hit songs, HERE & NOW has 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, 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.

Musical supervision, orchestrations and arrangements by Matt Spencer-Smith, set design by Tom Rogers, costume design by Gabriella Slade, lighting design by Howard Hudson, sound design by Adam Fisher, wigs and hair design by Sam Cox, make-up design by Jackie Saundercock, casting by Will Burton for Grindrod Burton Casting, Music Technology by Phij Adams and Production Management by Setting Line.

2025/26 TOUR SCHEDULE

29 – 30 August 2025
Aylesbury Waterside Theatre

2 – 13 September
Manchester Opera House

16 – 20 September
Glasgow King’s Theatre

23 September – 4 October
Dublin Bord Gais Energy Theatre 0818719 377 (ROI)
bordgaisenergytheatre.ie 08442485101 (UK)

7 – 11 October
Southend Cliffs Pavilion
www.thecliffspavilion.co.uk

14 – 18 October
Woking New Victoria Theatre

21 – 26 October
Aberdeen His Majesty’s Theatre
aberdeenperformingarts.com

28 October– 2 November
Newcastle Theatre Royal 0191 232 7010
www.theatreroyal.co.uk

4 – 9 November
London New Wimbledon Theatre

11 – 16 November
Nottingham Theatre Royal 0115 989 5555
trch.co.uk

18 – 22 November
Sheffield Lyceum 0114 249 6000
www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk