Starlight Express

 

In the 80s Starlight Express was the brash follow-up to Cats—the show that seemed unlikely to succeed but became a phenomenon with an eventual 25 years run. Starlight is about trains as characters: the engines who compete in a race—the stuff of a boy’s dream—with locomotives attached. Each character has their own personality, and there’s trash-talk and rap as well as a sweet love story and the mystical notion underpinning growing self-belief.

This new production in Wembley is the third version in the UK: The Apollo Victoria theatre was the home to the groundbreaking premiere, but it was also leg-breaking and the production was scaled down in the early 90s, with some new songs. And amazingly it ran to 2004. Now, with the Wembley production there are more new songs and some gender-changes. Poppa is Momma, Greaseball and the gang are ladies, and there’s a Nitrogen powered locomotive. Most importantly the auditorium has been built around the production, so it’s no longer crammed into a 1930s picture house. Having paid Opera House prices, those sat in the front section are given plenty of warnings not to put arms or legs outside the seating area, and there’s no way to leave and re-enter the auditorium when the show is running. Every section has a sit-in steward in case there is an emergency.

The motif of the boy going to bed amongst his toy trains is sweet, and the boy is now no longer just a voice—he is a very present part of the game-show look to the show. The skating is incredible, with a skate-park slope facing the audience at the back of the stage, and a track running the circumference of the auditorium between the ‘First Class’ stalls and the balcony. A big screen shows the close-up race footage on video and there’s a position indicator.

Display and audio technology has come a long way, and Starlight Express has benefited from it. But the mostly-unknown performers are the reason to go. The fake-American setting has been removed and all the cast sing with a perfect contemporary British-English accent. And the skating (and Marshalls on Scooters) is phenomenal. To do kicks on skates, and to sing whilst skating is really impressive. Specifically Greaseball (Al Knott), Pearl (Kayna Monticello) and Rusty (Jeevan Braich).

The show has changed, and that means that some good songs have gone from each new production of the show, and that’s a shame if you’re a bit of a purist. The Gladiators look is kind of fun, even if the production has sanded down some of the settings that might be considered old-fashioned. I’m expecting the w-word to be deployed by critics but the show is fun, it’s sufficiently loud and bright, and the cast and crew is first class.