Claire Richards spills the tea on the Steps musical: ‘We want it to stand on its own’

Claire Richards has shared details about the upcoming Steps musical, Here and Now.

Speaking to Attitude on the red carpet of the Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards, powered by Jaguar, the pop icon explained that the group landed on the title of the musical, named after their 2001 hit ‘Here and Now’, because they wanted the musical to appeal to as many people as possible.

“We wanted it to be [named] after a Steps song, but maybe not one of the more obvious ones,” she said. “Because as well as Steps fans, we want everybody to come and see it. We didn’t want to exclude anybody. And I don’t think that a musical called ‘Tragedy’ would have done that.”

She added: “I think once people see it and they know the storyline, it’ll make sense.”

“It’s really heartwarming and funny” – Claire Richards

Sharing more details about the musical, the singer said: “It is set in a seaside superstore, Better Best Bargains, and it’s the story of four friends who go on a journey during their summer of love. They have to embark on these challenges to find love. It’s really heartwarming and funny.”

When asked whether Steps themselves feature in the musical, Richards said no.

“We really wanted to make sure that it would stand on its own and be a story that everybody could enjoy,” she said. “We didn’t want to make it exclusive.”

Expanding on Richards’s comments, her bandmate Ian ‘H’ Watkins said: “It leaves it quite broad but when you see all the visuals, it makes sense.”

Still, H said that working on the musical had given him a new appreciation for some of the band’s most iconic hits.

“We absolutely see the songs in a new way,” he said. “They’ve been woven into a narrative that we have loved from day one. It’s heart-wrenching. And most of us are parents, so we can relate heavily to the lyrics now.”

Here and Now opens at The Alexandra in Birmingham on 9 November.

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