Starlight Express Birmingham

This has indeed been rumoured for quite a while. I heard on the grapevine that it would be Birmingham.

Sadly I suspect the pandemic will have put this on hold for years rather than months. I would LOVE to see it happen however.

I saw Starlight Express in the magnificent Bochum production in Germany when they made all the crazy changes two years ago.

They removed characters
Made Papa a Mama
Added awful songs
Cut good songs
Made the whole show woke
Destroyed Pearl
Added awful new costumes
Cut all the goosebump moments
Removed all the wonderful melodic in-between songs.
Added drones and a weird stomach laser to Starlight Sequence but the Mama/Rusty key and arrangement is now all over the place

Sadly Starlight Express like a botched surgery job has been played with so many times over the years ALW and Arlene Philips have destroyed it. Unless they bring the 2000 Bochum Caboose/There’s Me, Du Allein/Only You, LeibessExpress/Engine of Love, Lotta Locomotion version back in the Bochum setting in Birmingham. Ill be giving it a miss.

It was meant to be in Battersea for years in a huge arena type Bochum show but didn’t happen. I presume this won’t either.

I just remember seeing it on tour and the CGI was so cheap.

Not a fan. 🤢

I actually don't think Birmingham's a bad idea. It's more driveable from the north (if they had a cheap/free car park). I'd go, I'd be curious to see it.


If you had limitless money to throw at it, I think the best way to do it would be to have big venue, where it was split off so the front was the theatre and the back was a skate school and birthday party venue. So it would be a bit like an ice rink, but with an attached theatre. You'd have two or three casts, and during the day you'd have a birthday party where they had a skate lesson/hour at a roller disco, then watched a shortened version of Starlight Express. Then in the evenings (and some matinees) you'd have full performances. You'd also run lessons after school or at the weekends, and let people hire practice space. Having a skate school and rehearsal venue on site would mean that you could actually cast people straight from that into the show. I'm imagining a site with a car park, but you could have some sort of deal to bring people from other cities (Starlight National Express coaches maybe, that would be painted to look like trains so you'd advertise while on the motorway).

But like I say, that would need very deep pockets!

There are many millions of people living within an hour of Birmingham. Tourists do venture outside of the capital. Stratford-upon-Avon does attract a fair few as do places like Oxford, Cambridge, the Peaks, the Lakes and many more. And whilst Starlight isn't Shakespeare, it is a spectacle and not all tourists are culture vultures.

As a Brummie, I'm interested and excited to see this.

I think they should definitely add a new character based on the HS2 (although they'd probably have the shortest amount of stage time).

Rail access to Birmingham is terrible from the North. 105 minutes from Manchester. The line is sooooo slow. It’s only ten more minutes to London.

No, my train was late 🙂

I’ll often pop up to Birmingham from London for a matinee, the cheaper than west end prices along with train tickets booked in advance often make it a better option than just going into town.

Richard Stilgoe’s original version for me is the best.

Even though Birmingham is the country’s bullseye, it is still not the place which is synonymous with long running theatre, where London is. If it didn’t run do you blame the show or location?

I was at the Other Palace production where Andrew Lloyd Webber took to the stage and vowed that a new production will open next year and he had found his Pearl.

Exactly its too close to London for long runners. I guess that's why Manchester is successful?

Here's a guess from a foreigner who knows the German production inside-out and backwards and forwards. Mind you, it's only a guess.

Theatre in the UK, from what I've observed, is still very "city-centric", i.e. people drive into the city for an evening out or even full day out with shopping, a meal and a show in the evening or just go straight from the office after work with friends/colleagues before going home late.

The German production of Starlight Express opened outside the city directly beside a motorway exit way back in 1988 - there wasn't (and still isn't) anything in the near environment for dining out or anything. Even the next public transport stop is ten minutes walk away and it's about 30 minutes to walk into the city - not that Bochum is a place that conjures up visions of a big shopping spree or fine dining the way London might. While I don't have actual statistics, I think it's safe to say that about 80-90% of all people visiting the show come by car and use the big car park right beside the theatre. They may buy a snack at the theatre or bring a packed sandwich along to eat before the show. Basically Starlight Express is more like a tourist attraction these days - you drive there, do your sightseeing (see a performance), buy a snack and a drink perhaps and drive off again - and not like a classic "evening out in the city".

So I think this may be the inspiration for the production in Birmingham. Forget about dinner and shopping, but you can reach it easily by car within 60-90 mins from large parts of England. And since Britain isn't quite as car-obsessed as Germany, you even get a train station right in front of the building for those preferring the train. But frankly, I think if this happened, it will be more along the lines of the German version as a tourist attraction.