Starlight Express--can ANYONE defend this show?

Posted: 4/3/07 at 8:34pm

OK while my true love for musicals is with Sondheim, or the Fosse shows, or whatever, I do enjoy Lloyd Webber--some much more than others.

Even at his least though (the only major show I've really not heard nor seen any of is Brilliant Green) there's usaully SOMETHING in his musicals I find at least musically kinda pleasing, or compelling or... *something*. I get why people would make this into a stage work.

Except Starlight Express. For ages I completely avoided the show having no interest but I recently found the record of the original London cast at a garage sale for a quarter and couldn't say no...

WTF is basically my reaction to nearly every song in it (I knew some of the songs like the vaguely amusing U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D. before, as well as Only You which is a pleasant ballad, nothing too surprising from ALW). I mean... yeah, WTF! So much of it seems to wrong headed and just so... crass for lack of a better word. I know some have politely called it a brother show to Cats--but that show, despite some over the top bombasity is at hear a charming song cycle with some good dancing. I don't feel I'd get any of that from watching Express (didn't it run, in various forms for like 15 years in the West End?)

Even the show itself seems so cynical for a show that ALW claimed was for kids more than any of his other works. Cynical and *ugly* from the pics I've seen. I've heard they since cleaned up much of it but the original recording is filled with really rather vulgar, considering the main audience, sexual innuendo and spots that could be misogynistic (Lotta Locomotion) or homophobic (AC/DC and the creepiness in general of that train's character, from the pics...

And musically... I dunno so much of it sounds SOOO lazy like ALW wasn't even putting a 1/10 of the effort he would in even one of his lesser shows. As much as I love musical theatre, opera, etc, I am a big fan of lotsa pop music that people would find disposable--I'm in heaven with a good Giorgio Moroder synth disco tune, some 80s New Wave, etc--but Moroder's stuff doesn't even work as a guilty pleasure despite all the dated synth orchestrations.

It just seems a huge mess that, if I had heard, I woulda originally thought mus tbe a unproduced concept recording or something...

SO having said all that... Are there fans? I'd like to hear what positive things anyone sees in this--I'm not looking to argue or fight :P I'm honestly curious

Posted: 4/3/07 at 8:37pm

I'm not too big into Frank Rich's reviews but as snarky as this is his opening review for Starlight Express is dead on:

"IN a full-page program note, the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber modestly explains that he conceived his new musical, 'Starlight Express,' as an entertainment 'event' for children who love trains. Over two numbing hours later, you may find yourself wondering exactly whose children he has in mind. A confusing jamboree of piercing noise, routine roller-skating, misogyny and Orwellian special effects, 'Starlight Express' is the perfect gift for the kid who has everything except parents. "

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 4/3/07 at 8:39pm

I saw it in London a couple years before it clsoed and LOVED it. Now, I own more Sondheim and LaChiusa than I do Webber and am proud of it, but Starlight is a guilty pleasure of mine. It's just SO MUCH FUN. the score is forgetable, but fun and if you actually see a real production (not that crappy tour with 3D goggles) it's truly a fun event. I liken it to Mamma Mia. It's not art. It's just fun.

[Josh Freilich]

Posted: 4/3/07 at 8:43pm

Add Starlight to my guilty pleasure list. I love it.

I saw it in Philadelphia on tour, and I loved it a LOT. It was a really fun show. One of the most catchiest Webber scores ever. Although I do chide the guys for the synthetic orchestrations, that show was the show that made me love the whole "doozh doozh" drum sound effect in those '80s pop songs (because I'm a keyboardist), and made me relisten to those songs all over again. It was awesome.

[nealb1]

Posted: 4/3/07 at 8:50pm

I love this show!! The first time I saw it was in July of 1988, in NYC. Then I saw it again a few years later, here in Los Angeles.

Love it, love it, love it!

Posted: 4/3/07 at 8:52pm

Ah so maybe I woulda had to have seen it--it just feels like it would be kinda creepy and overtly commercial to me.

That said I get completely what both of you guys mean--I can be a huge theatre snob but I also can really enjoy a well done over the top extravaganza (and I've been surprised by Lord Andy before--I saw Whistle Down the Wind in London expecting it to be a huge flop that I could tell everyone I saw and ended up really enjoying it...).

I have to say the idea of the 3D tour (and isn't it to recorded music?) just sounds *hideous* to me and like it would ruin most of the appeal

(as for the Mama Mia thing I'm a big ABBA fan and I guess I get what ya mean though I hope you're not comparing the music )

And Josh I'm a huge fan of synth music--so I get what ya mean too.

ALthough I sitll have to say on the original cast the sexism and weirdness of many of the innuendos creep me out :P

[Mr. Tuttle]

Posted: 4/3/07 at 8:52pm

It's the best roller skate musical.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 2:58am

I can't really explain why I like Starlight Express. It is sort of Cats on wheels, but I like Cats too. and I like the fantasy and other worldly elements of Starlight Express. It's a great story. It's a neat show visually and it just clicked for me. I can understand why some people wouldn't like it and I do enjoy shows with a little more substance as well, but I'm also a Webber fan and the show just works for me. If it doesn’t work for you there’s no real point in trying to make it. Maybe come back in a few years and try again, but if it’s not your show then it’s not your show.

[musical_devotee]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 4:31am

Even though I am a big ALW fan, Starlight Express was never my top favorite. I like some of the songs (on the original cast recording Stephanie Lawrence's ONLY HE is gorgeous plus some more; on the new one: MAKE UP MY HEART; NEXT TIME YOU FALL IN LOVE), but on the whole I don't find it as interesting as some of his other stuff.
Updated On: 4/4/07 at 04:31 AM

[Urban]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 4:33am

Different strokes I guess.

You know, with me, I heard the German Cast Recording before I heard any English one and maybe that had something to do with it, but it is firmly one of my guilty pleasures (and I detest CATS).

I think it is maybe because it is glitz and surreal and a little fast paste it helps brush over the holes, but it just works for me.

Posted: 4/4/07 at 4:35am

Is that the same Stephanie Lawrence who was on the British original Whose Line is it Anyway (and once had to invent on the spot a Sondheim style patter song about vacuums??)

LOVE her

[camp_actor]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 5:10am

Starlight Express was the second big West End show I saw when I was 11. I loved it back then, it was magical to me (as CATS had been the year before), the spectacle of it - a whole track that went around the audience and what seemed like incredible feats of skating WHILST singing. I was in heaven.

The chance came for me to see it again (for free) with a company I was with when I was 14. I had a completely different experience. I thought it was boring, over-the-top and messy plot-wise...This was the same show I'd seen 3 years before, but it was different to me.

Now, I've seen a lot of theatre in my time and am now much more discerning in my tastes than I was when I was 11, but when it was still the second proper show I'd ever seen and I sat in the auditorium/racetrack and heard that kid's voice come over the loudspeaker I got goosebumps. You couldn't shut me up about it for weeks.

[musical_devotee]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 5:57am

I'm not sure about Stephanie Lawrence: this is the actress who played Evita during the original London run and also Grizabella. She died in 2000, aged 49.
Updated On: 4/4/07 at 05:57 AM

[Paulyd]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 7:15am

I think you mean Josie Lawrence, who has had her time on the west end stage as well. She was in the revival of The King & I, and i think she took over from Elaine Paige.

Stephanie Lawrence took over from Elaine Paige as Eva Peron in the original london production of Evita...Spooky huh

[musical_devotee]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 7:57am

According to Wikipedia, Stephanie Lawrence took the role of Evita from Marti Webb and played Pearl in the original production of Starlight Express in London.

In any case, her rendition of ONLY HE on the original cast recording is fabulous.

[Paulyd]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 8:21am

My mistake. I didnt release that Marti Webb took the role of Evita on. I would have liked to see her in it.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 8:27am

I think this one of them shows what played here in the UK for so long and no one quite understood why?

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 8:39am

Hated it. Loud, screechy, obnoxious. Couldn't wait for it to be over.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 8:42am

Ya know, in almost evey art form, there is something that makes you sit down and say "Wha? How do people like this?" (Even if it isn't something loads like), and "Starlight Express" seems to fit the bill.

Personally, I kinda liked the tacky 3-D Goggles of the tour...and it filled Fair Park nicely, which is tough to do.

Posted: 4/4/07 at 8:52am

Stephanie Lawrence has a really good CD out of all ALW music called "Footlights" She was an amazing Mrs. Johnstone in Blood Brothers. She also played the title role in "Marilyn!" You can find a CD out there of some of her songs from the show which was recordered well after the show closed but the recording is quite muffled. Stephanie was also in Time.

[tazber]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 9:08am

one of my favorite guilty pleasures to be sure! The Starlight Sequence is one of my favorite ALW songs. I love the harmonies and the message of "you can do anything" is inspiring.

[gymdudeva]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 9:20am

Saw it in DC on tour and HATED it. (And I'm one of these people who at least LIKES almost everything...I even like CATS!)

Let's see...oh there was about 60 seconds I liked: The song that goes "Only you..." and "I am the starlight" over each other, during a cool laser effect. (I guess that's the Starlight Sequence referenced above.) That was good.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 9:29am

Isaw it in London and was charmed. It played in a smallish theatre, with a wonderful environmental design (model trains running all around you from the lobby into the theatre), as well as tracks surrounding the audience for all the races. It never pretended to be anything but a childrne's show and it worked perfectly.

I understand that the New York production just got huge and overblown. But in London, it was darling.

[metropolis10111]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 9:48am

Well first off I will say that Starlight is the show closest to my heart for a number of reasons and over the years I have traveled all over and have managed to see every production mounted from Mexico to Japan and back to Ohio for the first armature production.

The Music: If you are just going by the Original London Cast album then you are getting a very dated version of the show. Remember when this show was written the music styles of the day were very much in line with what you hear there. Andrew was doing his best at bringing some of the younger sounds to the show, all be it with varying degrees of success. (The Rap off that album is still the worst thing ever recorded to the human ear in 2007, but was not bad back in 1984) As the show grew older Webber “matured” the score a bit, by adding some very good new songs while still trying to maintain a “fresh” sound to the piece. If you are able to get a hold of the double disc German recording you will hear the best presentation of the score ever and it has swayed more then a few haters of the show when I have played them bits of it. Webber was fresh off the success of Cats and so if that show did great why not try and make another like it. We see it with a number of composers and directors. Is the music Tony worthy? No, but it is very cleaver with its Peter and the Wolf use of marrying up music styles with the appropriate type of engine and coach. Most music today will find it’s roots in the old jazz and blues and all trains started out as steam engines so naturally Blues would represent the oldest and most base form of railway transportation, and so on and so forth with other styles. So there was SOME thought that went into the piece.

The Lyrics: Here is where even I come up short trying to defend it. Yea a bunch of the lyrics are bad...almost cringingly bad at times but then quite lovely at others. There’s Me and Only He have quite beautiful lyrics, but then you have things like Freight and The Rap…..yea.

The Plot: The show is basically the Little Engine That Could married with a kind of Cinderella story, and if you think about that this show was aimed at kids, it’s a plot that they can grasp and parents will remember with, hopefully, a fondness. Starlight has varying plots depending on the production you see there are characters that wonder in and out of the piece giving either a more complex or simple story. It’s full of the larger then life characters that were not only in most of Webbers pieces such as Cats and Joseph but at the time we had pop stars like Madonna, Cindy Lauper, Prince and many other outlandish characters taking center stage in the pop world, and I think that it was from this that Andrew took his cue.

The Staging: The show as been on stages, in soccer stadiums and on ice each with its successes and short comings. In London it truly was one of the most amazing sets you can ever imagine. People can knock the music and plot if the so wish but one can not knock the staging of this piece. It was an amazing piece of theatre showmanship. The production has only been staged better, in my opinion, in Germany. The Broadway staging was big, but cumbersome to use and watch. The Las Vegas production got it right with it’s smaller out still immersive set. It toured soccer stadiums in Japan with a double set of actors and was …interesting. When they put it on ice, not even I could watch it, it was so bad. The tours have had varying degrees of success with the current 3D tour actually being quite fun. The movies are just part of the showmanship and are pretty cool to see.

People love or loath this piece, for many it’s that CD hidden under a copy of Sweeny Todd for fear that a passing theatre snob may see it. I for one revel in this show’s Taoist complex simplicity and just grin from ear to ear each time I see it. It is a show that is just there as escapist entertainment, letting you know nothing more then that the underdog still does get the girl and being true to yourself is still the best way to go, nothing more. Some pretentious theater queens just write off many a show like because there is no huge revelation of the torched human soul or other deep meaning. To those people I say of you want a plot less piece like that just listen to Company. (Another show who’s cast recording sounds very dated in its original form) To each our own and that is what makes theater the great thing it is. We each get to escape to varying degrees into a world of music and lights. Some of us like it to be a deeper refection of life’s strife and others like it as a jewel box of color radiating the simple joys of living.

[sweeedboy]

Posted: 4/4/07 at 11:52am

I saw Starlight Express on my first trip to London. I think i was about 7 at the time. The only other professional show I had seen at the time was Phatom of the Opera, which for a 7 year old was a SNOOOZE FEST! I remember my mom getting us tickets for the second to last night we were there.
Most of the trip I didn't really get along with London. I didn't like the food, I didn't really get the whole medival thing and I was just kinda over it (Now it ranks as one of my favorite cities).
I remember the whole trip changed when i saw starlight express. I had never been so imersed in a theatrical experience before. I remember my mouth being absolutely agaped as they raced around the theater, and the moving bridge absolutely blew my mind. The music (and lyrics) were perfect for a 7 year old growing up in the 80's. I adored every minute of it.

When I got back to the states the first thing i did was lace up my roller skates with He-Man on the side, go down to my basement, and act out the entire show with the CD.

Nowadays I rarely listen to it, as it is so dated and the lyrics very sophomoric. But the show will always hold a special place in my heart and you can find me on an odd sunday turning on "The Rap" and smiling pleasently.