Starlight Express

Such a social oppertunity this show! With onlya week of performances, its a great chsnce for some of us to meet as odds are a few of us are at each performance!

That being said, the three other members I know going Saturday I am already social with so that kinda defeats the purpose but still!

I'm having flashbacks of the tour!

Just talked to a friend who saw it and says Tassita is the name of the quiet carriage.


I think that would be awesome. Electra has had female covers before - and if they can do it to Poppa I don't see why not! Electra's components are already gender neutral roles too...I think it would be cool if all of the roles were like that. They could even have Rusty and Pearl as a gay/lesbian couple if they wanted to be really progressive 

Im happy to see that ALW found his Gramercy Concert approach to School of Rock so effective that he's trying it with other things (one wonders if Love Never Dies would still be running in its original london production had he done something similar and gotten audience feedback like this)

Very curious to see if this evolves into some full-fledged revival. I could've sworn I had read in a recent ALW interview that Starlight would never be revived - which struck me as odd as it ran for so long in the UK and seemingly everywhere else other than here in the US. Will be curious about what comes of this...

I'm very lucky to be performing in a rare amateur production of Starlight in November in Bournemouth. We have been licensed to perform the 2012 version of the show which was the last UK Tour. We have a whole lot of locamotion and I do.

We had to do it in November because of a new UK tour next year.

We are going one step further. We are building a racetrack around the stalls from the stage and will be doing live races.

We are proving a point to RUG that in the right venues you can still attempt
some live racing.

I am seeing Starlight 2018 on Saturday which also happens to be my birthday so mega excited.

I'm playing Dustin. I hope he hasn't been cut as it's a great part to play.

Speaking of Dustin, there was the moment when he came to Rusty's aid after he had been kicked out of the race, or attacked by some others. That could be the perfect place to bring back 'There's Me' Dustin having a crush on Rusty would be cute!

I'd ship them and call them Dusty or Rustin

Went last night and loved it!

Thought the staging by Arlene Phillips was fabulous - I guess this would fulfil "semi-staged" criteria but it was very creative and worked beautifully. The lighting was also great.
Performed by a band who were on stage the score sounded wonderful. Re-orchestrated entirely for the better. The mix of an up to date sound but with those amazing 80's style electric drum noises I thought was inspired.

To the changes themselves - not that extensive. I Got Me is a new song that I liked. I Do of course is not new, but I think is underrated. It's a good 11 o'clock number. Crazy being moved to the start makes sense. Wide Smile is back - amazing to hear Caboose's song in English for first time since the 80s. Otherwise the changes were mainly small print.

Only negative - Girls Rolling Stock and Right Place Right Time both cut! Love them both. Also important for the non main characters to have a bit more action. Hope this is not a permanent change.

ALW said the thing about not recognising the score in Bochum. Odd as that production is managed to the n'th degree! Also the CD that came out for the 25th anniversary RUG took over a year to approve and Bochum has sounded identical (to me) since then. It's the orchestrations from the last UK tour. Strange!

Oh and the cast - amazing!

I wonder if he was referring to the orchestra. When I revisited the show early this year after a long absence, I did notice the somewhat tinny noisy sound. I was a bit shocked to count only 12 or 13 orchestra members coming out onto the stage at the end of the performance to take their bows - back in the old days they were twice as many. The difference may not be as glaring as for shows that rely more on a classical sound (Phantom for example suffered very badly from cutting down the orchestra in Germany) but it's still an audible difference.

Well I was there tonight. Spoilers, obvs.

There were quite a few empty seats. I wonder if the attack on the train earlier put people off.

It was good. I liked the way they'd integrated Crazy a bit more. It's a shame to have lost the melody of Engine of Love/He Whistled At Me altogether.

I was never going to love the new song. It's OK. At the end of the first half I didn't like it and by the end of the second half I'd grown to like it and then was sick of it as they really overused it.

I'm a bit disappointed they didn't go back and find songs from Starlight's past and see if they could reuse them rather than a new song, but they always seem to like shoving in a new song.

The new characters were fine although terribly underused. They really need a Girls Rolling Stock moment. That should be put back in or maybe the new song could go there instead.

I get that the ensemble actors were playing multiple roles, but it annoyed me when Volta(r? it sounded like he pronounced it with an 'r.') changed gender halfway through act one and when the actor playing Espresso changed.

Mica Paris was fantastic but I wish they'd replaced Poppa's Blues rather than just turning it into Momma's Blues. I think they should rewritten Belle the Sleeping Car with words about Momma instead.

Dustin was my favourite and I loved Dinah's boots.

I didn't like the references to the real world much, mentioning people like Bjork wasn't right.

I think the way Pearl was played worked in this production but wouldn't in the show proper. I'll probably think of more things to add later.

I know it sounds negative above but it was a great night.

I'm kinda glad I don't know the score or book or anything at all about this show, so going into it tomorrow for me, its just going to be watching a brand new musical!

Nope. Not a single song, lyric or note.

Here is my knowlage of the show... skates and it was at the Apollo Victoria.