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#26

re: Starlight Express

Posted: 3/9/07 at 2:49pm

I saw it in the Kennedy Center opera house, of all places...oh, the scrilege!! I think that JFK was spinning in his grave for the 2 hours, non-stop.

They built a tear-drop shaped ramp into the house, and, although I love the element of the unexpected in live performances, it looked like they were going to fly off the thing into the middle of the house at any moment. Was hard to relax, seeing that. And of course,as Clavin laments below, they couldn't race all aroind the theatre, so when they raced off-stage, an idiotic movie came on of them racing around somewhere....it was horrible.
#27

re: Starlight Express

Posted: 3/9/07 at 3:07pm

I still love this show. It always promoted itself in the best way. it NEVER took itself seriously and that is why it was so cool --
"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."
#28

re: Starlight Express

Posted: 3/9/07 at 3:31pm

I have a morbid curiousy about this show. It seems like the epitome of the cheezy 80's musical. The music seems catchy though, especially "AC/DC" - no relation to the band. I believe the new 3D production that toured the U.S. a couple years ago is now touring the U.K.
#29

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/9/07 at 3:41pm

Sounds bad enough.

If it re-opened on Broadway in a better form, would you see it?
#30

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/9/07 at 3:45pm

i saw it on broadway and hated it. When i was in london, i figured i'd go see it again because it was closing. It wasn't half bad...
#31

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/9/07 at 5:44pm

The original production was very entertaining, but the show just didn't age well. By the time the London production closed, the performers had pretty much given up on it and the audience knew it. But when it originally opened, it's set and lighting designs were the most technically advanced Broadway or London had seen and I'm still surprised it was not a hit on Broadway, given the show had all the ingredients to be a huge massive hit spectacle. The first national tour was not bad at all, but rewrites started creeping in and with every production, the show became more of a patchwork mess. The original London and German recordings represent the best versions of the show before things started falling apart.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
#32

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/9/07 at 6:23pm

ehh... I like the second London recording the best.
#33

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/9/07 at 7:13pm

I saw it in London before it closed, and it was great. It's a spectacle. The music isn't the greatest ALW has ever written, though I like Only You. I've seen the Bochum production also, very good too. The tour with the 3D videos was just rubbish. The performances were good, but they could only make the best of a crap production.

Good show overall.
The rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.

Derek Mahon

"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."

Arthur Miller
#34

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/10/07 at 8:51am

I am listening to the German Cast Recording now. Yeah this thread 'inspired' me to click that partiuclar folder on my computer. Starlight Express

I have to disagree with the "Cats with Tracks" comments. At least STARLIGHT (to me) is catchy and enjoyable (even if cheesey) for the most part. With the exception of "Memory", CATS was dull and just never clicked with me at all.
#35

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/10/07 at 9:21am

Am I totally losing it or was there a version of it ON ICE? I could have sworn I remember that.
"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around."
#36

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/10/07 at 10:10am

Yep, at the Las Vegas Hilton.
#37

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/10/07 at 1:12pm

"Am I totally losing it or was there a version of it ON ICE? I could have sworn I remember that."

There was. Canned music and fugly costumes. It didn't sell well either. Unfortunately I wasn't with the company long enough to go into the merchandise archives and look at the stuff they sold.

The best production of StEx is Bochum, Germany as they avoid making any changes to the show for a couple years after the other productions implement them to see if they work or not. I am pissed, though, that they recently upgraded the sound system and in the process cut the orchestra from 18 members to 10.
#38

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/10/07 at 5:28pm

Does the current German production have subtitles for tourists that don't speak German?
Going to a musical late in its run is like going to a prostitute late in her shift.
#39

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/10/07 at 6:17pm

Starlight is just a great piece of utter crap.

and I love every minute of it!
"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed
#40

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/10/07 at 9:05pm

"Does the current German production have subtitles for tourists that don't speak German?"

No, there is no supertitle display. I haven't had a chance to go, but most shows have a souvenir programme for cheap (€5-6, no free playbill) and those frequently have an English synopsis that you can read before the show starts.

That said, the plot of Starlight Express is rather easy to follow even without a translation.
#41

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/12/07 at 2:55pm

Allentown2, the production in Vegas was not on ice. That was a seperate production from the touring ice show.
#42

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/12/07 at 3:37pm

The closing number "Light at the End of the Tunnel," is included in the video of the Royal Albert Hall performance in honor of ALW's 50th Birthday. It features the original London Rusty, who was aging really well when it was taped, and gives you a sense of what the choreography looked like on skates.

I saw the original London production and remember nothing so much as Frances Ruffelle and "U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D."
#43

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/12/07 at 3:47pm

I saw the London production twice, and though it was very entertaining, it wasn't THAT good. A spectacle. The main thing being the incredible set designed by John Napier.

In London's Apollo Victoria theatre (current home of WICKED) they were able to skate around about 150 orchestra seats as well as around the whole orchestra level. Yes, the audience had to walk across the skating tracks to get into the auditorium's orchestra seats. There also was another track extending into the auditorium on the Mezzanine level, the track was attached to the front edge of the Mezzanine and the performers would skate around on theatre, changing levels - thanks to this huge "railroad bridge" hovering above the stage. The bridge could be moved, turned and tilted.

Musically it is closer to CATS than to PHANTOM or EVITA. But, the songs are unfortunately quite fortgettable.

Visually stunning, story-wise very poor.

Updated On: 3/12/07 at 03:47 PM

#44

Starlight Express

Posted: 3/12/07 at 3:49pm

I saw the "New" Starlight Express in London in the early 90s. In fact, it was my first large-scale musical (outside of movie musicals and local producgtions); it's sort of mystifying to me that I even like musicals with that as my introduction. Starlight Express
'"Contrairiwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."' ~Lewis Carroll
#45

Starlight Express

Posted: 4/3/07 at 9:12pm

Hey, I know this is a finished thread, but just out of curiosity does anyone have a cast list for the original London cast that lists who played which part?
Thanks a lot

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