Loving the music in new Steps-inspired musical

It now plays Theatre Royal Brighton from December 2-13 and Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre from January 20-24 – and Blake is loving it.

“I didn't really know Steps that well when I first started but I would definitely say that I'm a big Steps fan now… and that the show has done that to me! What was really amazing for me was to go into the workshop and to be coming to the songs completely fresh. I didn't know them. All of these pop songs were not in my head already. For me it was just a new discovery. I've never heard of a lot of the songs before so I wasn't coming to them with preconceived ideas. I wasn't listening to them thinking ‘Oh, this sounds different now!’ The first time I heard a lot of the songs was just on a piano in the rehearsal room.

“I was in the workshop back in April last year. They did a readthrough before that but the workshop was really amazing. It was really scary in a way. You've signed up for something and for want of a better phrase you just don't know whether it's going to be any good. But I think I very quickly found that it was going to be great during the workshop because if there were any things that weren't quite working then (writer) Shaun Kitchener and (director) Rachel Kavanaugh would really work it out with us and we would all make sure that it was absolutely right.”

As for the character of Robbie: “He is young and a bit silly. He is very, very playful and he is there for a good time. He has had a few experiences that have knocked him back a bit in terms of making long-lasting commitments to relationships or to love. He is a bit of a playboy but in a lovable way but then Caz wants him to take a chance on love…

“Caz at the beginning of the show convinces her friends to make a pact together to have a summer of love. At first Robbie thinks it's ridiculous but he gets coerced into it and he meets somebody who blows him away. He gets a bit scared along the way but he just meets the perfect person for him.”

As for those Steps songs: “I'm the sort of person that when I hear a song that I love I just have it on repeat. I just play it and play it and play it and I use it as my alarm setting. And I just never get bored of it and there are so many songs that are like that in the show that just give you this great dopamine rush. The songs are so upbeat. They are so Steps, just really lovely and I just want to hear them again and again and again. They are great songs.”