“It’s part of it all, isn’t it?” asks Lee Latchford-Evans, the artist occasionally known as Lee from Steps.
He’s speaking just after arriving in Dunfermline, after a long journey up from England to open the tour of the new Easter panto he’s appearing in, Beauty and the Beast.
“Travelling around, doing your thing,” he continues. “It’s nice to finally get in the theatre and meet the crew.
“We’re going to basically be living in theatres for the next three weeks, and we’re kickstarting it all in Dunfermline.”
Off on tour in England after its only Scottish date here, Beauty and the Beast also features sometime Blue Peter and CBBC presenter Barney Harwood, juggler and comedian Steve Royle, formerly of Britain’s Got Talent, and Carma Hylton from CBBC’s The Dumping Ground.
Lee is set to play the challenging dual role of the Prince and the Beast in his current panto – which he believes is the 13th professional pantomime he’s done in his career.
“I enjoy it, it’s a lot of fun,” he says. “It’s a great string to your bow, because you’re learning a lot – it’s not easy doing panto, it’s a hard job.
“You can do two to three shows a day, you’re singing a minimum of five songs per show, you’ve got all your scene changes, costume changes, there’s a lot to learn.”
Juggling fatherhood with touring is ‘tough’
But one of the toughest aspects of life in the theatre for 49-year-old Lee right now is the fact he and his wife have a two-and-a-half-year-old son, and a job like this means he has to be away from home for extended periods.
“It’s tough, I’m not going to lie,” he says. “Thank god for Facetime and baby monitor cameras on my phone and things like that, so I can still see my family and my boy.
“I’ve got an amazing wife who is very supportive and who helps out so much, I’m very lucky and privileged to do what I do and be able to continue doing it.”
Steps jukebox musical on the horizon
Meanwhile, Steps are still very much a going concern – they last toured in 2022, but this November sees the opening of their jukebox musical show Here & Now in Birmingham.
“I can’t really say too much, but the best way to describe it is, it’s a bit like Mamma Mia,” says Lee.
“It’s a story within itself, with different characters, and the music of Steps guides that story. It’s not about the Steps members, but we’ve been involved, we’ve had our own ideas and everything has been collated together.
“We’ll be at the auditions, we’ll be at the reading process, we’re producers in our own right.”
He says this show has been five years in the making, with a lot of work to bring it to this stage.
“We’ve got an amazing team now. Shaun Kitchener is the writer, he’s written a lot of Hollyoaks stuff and he’s done stage work before. He’s a really talented guy.
“We’ve got Olivier Award (nominated and winning, respectively) director Rachel Kavanaugh and choreographer Matt Cole. It’s a big project.”
Steps ‘haven’t split up’ insists Lee
Lee still can’t quite believe that the admittedly “Marmite” single 5,6,7,8 has led to a career lasting more than quarter of a century.
“Steps haven’t split up, we’re still together,” he says.
“What’s nice is, we come together, we work hard for two or three years on projects, then we take time out. Then we come back again a few years later and do it all again.”
A band social life is more difficult than ever, now they have families and live so far apart. Lee and Clare both near London, Faye near Sunderland, H in Wales and Lisa in Dubai.
But Lee says the reunions are always smooth.
“That’s the wonder of Steps,” says Lee.
“The fans stay with us, and they miss it and they want it, and we miss performing. So I reckon we’ll be back out there in a few years on stages again, definitely.”
The Beauty and the Beast Easter Pantomime is at the Alhambra, Dunfermline, on Friday March 29.
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