Starlight Express

I would have assumed that "Only you" had been too famous to change/axe, too or "A Lotta Locomotion" or "There's Me". Or to replace the very popular version of "Starlight Express" we've had (which I think was first done on Broadway as it's on that strange Broadway Concept Album) with the original London version....  oh well,  I stop right now. 

The tour in the early 00s with the 3D films for the races was probably the first show I ever saw that really left a lasting impression on me - I can still remember how in awe I was, so I would absolutely love to see this return in a big, spectacular production a la Bochum. Unfortunately I can't make the workshop performances, but I would be intrigued to learn what changes are being made. It seems ALW has never really been happy with the show given how often changes have been made.

Who doesn't love a Bochum fact on a Friday afternoon?

It's twinned with Sheffield.

Now everyone can impress their friends and colleagues!

It is strange how they keep meddling with Starlight. One of the producers once said to me that it was to keep it fresh. Sometimes a rewrite works amazingly (think of the musical Working most recently at Southwark or Love Never Dies in Oz) but often like the recent change in Rum Tum Tugger in Cats or cutting Now That Ive Seen Her in Saigon it is a backwards step.

I suppose the problem is (maybe?) that it was meant to sound contemporary when it opened in 1984. There was stuff like the "Rap" and "Right place, right time" and when you listen to "He'll whistle at me" it sounds incredibly 80-ish. So if they want to keep it fresh, they probably feel the need to adapt the sound again and again, although it rarely works. Some of the racing music sounds like cheap techno trash in Germany now. 

In the German production they also gave the German train Ruhrgold a new costume at some point to make him look like the (then new) ICE trains. I keep thinking that they might want to update ALL those costumes and add some of the new highspeed trains that have popped up all over the world. Why not turn Turnov from the Transsiberian Express to the Sapsan that runs between Moscow and St. Petersburg or the Italian train Espresso into the Frecciarossa? Am I overthinking this?

Considering modern sensibilities I can definitely see a female Electra turn up (with new lyrics for AC/DC maybe?) - there was always some mild grumbling that the engines were all male, while the females were consigned to being coaches permanently in need of a male for some locomotion.  

Please dont let them do to Electra what they did to Rum Tum Tugger in Cats. Urgh! Nothing more cringeworthy than a middle class interpretation of someone 'street'.

Ah yes. Steel cities. Many a time time I've driven down the Bochum Parkway in Sheffield. I wonder if there's a Sheffield Autobahn in Bochum? 

There was version of this done in a special needs school in Kent, my mum went to this (she is no theatre fan and hardly goes, she had a friend's child in the cast), however normally this is done with roller-skates but because of the children's disabilities this wasn't viable, but Starlight Express works equally as well in wheelchairs, my mums heart broke when the girl who played Pearl as she sung so beautifully and was even more saddening because of her disabilities.

At the end the headmaster done his speech and thanked the cast and everyone for coming and paid thanks to a chap sitting in the back row unnoticed, who has a beard and a love for JCB diggers, his name is Richard Stilgoe.

Thought I share that with you as my already high estimation in the man, went somewhat higher.

Only two seats left on Friday. Thursday sold out.

I have to say, I really like what they've done to the logo.

Oh I bought the very last ticket for the whole run.

It's a thing isn't it. It's called the S****horpe problem or something.

Edit: Here it is: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S****horpe_problem?wprov=sfti1

The link probably won't work haha.

Just in case, I should warn that the link contains strong language.

I hadn't read it all the way through before. My favourite thing is buttbuttinate haha.