“This is Control, this is Control.” I first heard these words back in the summer of 1990 when I bought a day ticket for the matinee of a strange show about toy trains. I took my seat; the lights went down and my love affair with Starlight Express began. I saw the show half a dozen times during its run at the Victoria Apollo and was really surprised when it closed in 2002, assuming it would run and run. Now, twenty-two years later, in its new home of the Troubadour Theatre, Starlight is back, and I was delighted to get a chance to see it.
In a child’s bedroom Control (Shaniyah Abrahams, Cristian Buttaci, Alexander Brooks, Barnaby Halliwell, Mimi Soetan or Arabella Stanton) is playing with their trains prior to going to bed. They eventually tuck in for a night’s sleep and then move to a world where the trains are alive and getting ready for the ultimate railway race. Greaseball (Al Knott) the diesel is the favourite and while being very arrogant is worshipped by the various coaches, particularly Dinah (Eve Humphrey) as the top of the pile. Down at the bottom is Rusty (Jeevan Braich), an old steamer who nobody considers good enough for racing. But there is a new coach Pearl (Kayna Montecillo) who doesn’t know the others and makes friends with Rusty. So, the stage is set for the race to end all races when a new entrant in the shape of Electra (Tom Pigram) arrives ready to steal the crown. With the various engines in place, Rusty seems unlikely to win anything. Though maybe an old steam engine, Momma (Jade Marvin) has some advice for the young engine.
Before we start the review proper, I’m going to break one of our rules and talk about the venue. The Troubadour has been gutted and rebuilt for Starlight Express and looks spectacular. From the million glitter balls in the foyer through to Tim Hatley’s jaw-dropping set, this theatre looks as if it was built solely for this production. When Andrzej Goulding’s video design and Howard Hudson’s lighting are added, you are in the presence of something spectacular that is ready to take you on a journey like no other. The story has been majorly re-jigged since the original production with new trains and carriages and some new and reworked songs and lyrics bringing Andrew Lloyd Webber and Richard Stilgoe’s story up to date and removing some of the more negative elements of the original. No, it still doesn’t make sense that a rail carriage can be in love with a big old engine, but it doesn’t have to. We are looking at the story through the eyes and imagination of a child and in their world, everything makes sense. Let’s be honest, if you can accept Thomas the Tank Engine, you can accept singing trains.
Which brings us to the performances. There used to be a time in theatre when actors were considered good if they were able to sing, dance, and act (the triple threat), but with Starlight, the actors have to be a quadruple threat as they do all this but on skates. And boy, do they deliver. The two leads, Rusty and Pearl, have a lovely romantic chemistry about them that sparks the first time they lock eyes and goes on throughout the show. Then there are the Baddies – Greaseball and Electra. Both are so different. Greaseball relying on muscle to exercise her will and Electra is a new and erotically charged enigma to draw people to them. All four actors are superb, and lead a multi-talented cast where there are no weak links. A quick mention for Control and the Marshals. The young actor playing Control is on stage a lot and has to have a certain presence to be able to control the trains, which both the actors I saw play the role, really had. And the Marshals. Well, I just wish I could do the things they can on a scooter, combining excellent aerial acrobatics and perfect timing to add an extra wow factor to an already spectacular show.
I’ve seen this production twice now and was blown away both times. Whilst everything was amazing, some of my personal highlights include the arrival of Electra and their entourage which is a visual spectacle of amazing proportions, and Rusty’s song at the end of Act I, really tugs at the heartstrings as he expresses his loss of hope and faith. And, of course, the races. The track is not massive and watching eight people – trains and carriages – and the Marshalls racing around it safely and speedily is just fantastic.
Book Tickets for Starlight Express
Going into Starlight Express I was a bit nervous. Would this production be as good as the one I first saw thirty-four years later, and would I, a mature(ish) sixty-year-old man, still be as invested in a story of fighting trains as that wide-eyed twenty-six-year-old seeing the show for the first time? The answer to both is OMG Yes! Everything works and works spectacularly. Starlight Express has returned, buffed up, refurbished and with a new look and feel that I believe is going to run and run. Get your skates on to see it.
Review by Terry Eastham
Start your engines! Andrew Lloyd Webber’s STARLIGHT EXPRESS makes a triumphant return to London at the specially designed Starlight Auditorium at Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre.
STARLIGHT EXPRESS introduces Jeevan Braich as Rusty, Kayna Montecillo as Pearl, Jade Marvin as Momma McCoy, Al Knott as Greaseball, Eve Humphrey as Dinah and Tom Pigram as Electra.
The STARLIGHT EXPRESS cast also includes Jamie Addison, Jessie Angell, Ollie Augustin, Charles Butcher, Renz Cardenas, Catherine Cornwall, Jamie Cruttenden, Kelly Downing, Isaac Edwards, Asher Forth, Sam Gallacher, Lucy Glover, Pablo Gómez Jones, Scott Hayward, Lilianna Hendy, Dante Hutchinson, Lewis Kidd, Hannah Kiss, Oscar Kong, Emily Martinez, Deearna Mclean, Marianthe Panas, David Peter-Brown, Harrison Peterkin, RED, Bethany Rose-Lythgoe, Charlie Russell, Gary Sheridan, Jessica Vaux, Jaydon Vijn, Lara Vina Uzcatia, Sharon Wattis and Ashlyn Weekes.
The young actors are Shaniyah Abrahams, Cristian Buttaci, Alexander Brooks, Barnaby Halliwell, Mimi Soetan and Arabella Stanton.
STARLIGHT EXPRESS has music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Richard Stilgoe, is directed by Luke Sheppard, with set designer Tim Hatley, video designer Andrzej Goulding, costume designer Gabriella Slade, lighting designer Howard Hudson, sound designer Gareth Owen, new orchestrations by Matthew Brind, Musical Supervision by Matthew Brind & David Wilson, Musical Direction by Laura Bangay and Casting by Pearson Casting.
With thrilling new choreography by Ashley Nottingham, STARLIGHT EXPRESS also sees the return of Arlene Phillips as creative dramaturg.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s STARLIGHT EXPRESS is now open in the specially designed Starlight Auditorium at Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre. Audiences will be immersed inside a world of speed, song and storytelling as an incredible cast of 40 whizz around and above, performing some of musical theatre’s most beloved songs, including AC/DC, Make Up My Heart, Light at the End of the Tunnel and the iconic Starlight Express.
As a child’s train set magically comes to life and the engines race to become the fastest in the world, Rusty the steam train has little hope of winning until he is inspired by the legend of the ‘Starlight Express’.
Seen around the world by over 20 million people, STARLIGHT EXPRESS is an electrifying experience for all ages.
Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre
3 Fulton Road, Wembley, London, United Kingdom, HA9 0SP
It was a horrible rendition of a fantastic show. greeseball being changed to a female completely killed it. The simple story of the original was lost and muddled. Changing the names of the trains to generic names from the countries made everyone seem the same. There was no contract between the coaches and the trains.
Completely agree, went last night. Couldn’t stand the child playing controller running around with a train in her hands, pointless. Singing not great, all the best songs gone, rubbish new ones in there place.
Original million times better, if it ain’t broke Mr Lloyd Webber, don’t fix it!!
This destroyed my childhood memories of what was a fantastic show in the 90’s. As it started I got goosebumps with excitement…then the first song begun and I realised this was not going to be a copy of the original, the songs were stripped apart and ruined, and additional awful songs added. I’m sure kids will love it but we couldn’t stay to see the second act it was that disappointing! Why change something that was so good??
I too loved the original production and saw it twice as a kid in the 80’s. I have had the album on my library for years and still love listening to the original songs. I saw the new production last night and give the show, stage and theatre 10/10. The director and producers had a massive task in marching the energy and magic the original production gave so many people back in the day. The modern spin on the storyline, the mix up of genders for characters, the stage, lighting and music was amazing and would definitely see this again. Too many people try and compare to the original and I just don’t think you can. The only negative I have comparing the two is that the theatre is much smaller and therefore the races are more acted than the fast pace energy you saw at the Apollo.
100% recommended!
Absolutely loved every minute of this show. I saw it in the 80s but was too young to remember much of the storyline just the roller skating. The talent on that stage was incredible and the 2 standing ovations we all gave them were well deserved. Highly recommended
Just seen Starlight at Wembley, absolutely fantastic show with super talented cast, well done to you all.
We saw the original show several times in the 80’s and one time when the bridge broke down!, we worried we might be disappointed with the new version, thankfully we had nothing to worry about.
The stage and tech was amazing and the music and cast even better.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I absolutely loved this show when I saw it in the 80’s, even bought the music. This rendition was total rubbish and it’s ruined my childhood memories. The singing was rubbish and the child was nauseating. Don’t waste your money.
Greaseball and Pa were changed to fit in with the new theatre world where male characters are being replaced with females which ruined it for me
As a child Starlight Express was my favourite musical, and I still have the CD of the ‘New Starlight Express’ that my parents bought me in 1995.
I watched two nights ago, and must say I was thoroughly disappointed.
I could not understand a word the child ‘controller’ was shouting throughout the entire performance. I also felt the accoustics of the theatre were average at best, and really left several of the songs feeling flat and the crescendos anticlimactic, even disappointing at times.
As per the other comments, I couldn’t believe it when I say Diesel had been replaced with a slender Scandinavian blonde female, as opposed to what I recall being an almost Elvis styled macho man type character back in the 1990s. To hear her sing ‘I’m pumping Iron’ whilst gripping her none existent bicep was almost comical, sadly not in a good way.
The replacement of Poppa with Momma was a further disappointment, meaning that, whilst admittedly well sung, ‘Momma Sings the Blues’ lacked the grit of the original score.
The greenwashed invention of the ‘Hydrogen’ character, the accompanying poor song, and the inexplicable share of Rusty’s victory was the final straw for me.
On a plus note, my partner has never seen the original and she thought the new version fantastic, so I guess my enjoyment was tainted by my fond memories of the original.
We listened to the ‘original’ in the car yesterday and she preferred the songs and said it made more sense.
Brilliant. Fun filled fast and very entertaining. loved it.
I was never “in love” with the original – it was a fun show and had lots of great tunes, with a very clear story that really worked. I enjoyed it for what it was: a very well crafted collaboration between Webber and Stilgoe (both very gifted people.)
So I didn’t really think I had a lot of “skin in the game,” when I went to the new version – boy was I wrong. This new version is such a disappointment. Songs re-arranged and re-written by people with clearly less talent – why?? (Actually, I suspect I know the answer to that – see below). Cluttered new lines replaced the originals and the major plot points adapted, but not improved. Less of a “underdog wins through,” story, it has now become, well, I’m not quite sure – perhaps a “we can all have fun playing trains, whoever we are,” (I am enough, blah blah blah!) Rusty is relegated to a self-doubting nobody who needs to be “converted” to hydrogen to be a winner (you couldn’t make it up! Clearly, steam engines are killing the planet!)
I don’t often agree with folks who say, “this has been wokified and it’s terrible.” This is often a lazy cop-out, but to be honest, I have a lot of sympathy with them over this new version of SE. It seems pretty clear that well-intentioned people believed that the story needs to be “re-imagined for a new generation.” Unfortunately, these people just don’t have the talent to untie Webber’s and Stilgoe’s shoelaces.
I used to think the original was “a pretty good, fun show.” Turns it I was wrong; compared to today’s fare, it was a masterpiece. It took me 30 years and a terrible new version to show me that – so that’s one positive. I am now going to go online to a well know 2nd hand e-Market to buy a CD of the original production. There’s more joy in that £4.95 (incl. P&P) than even my cheap ticket for the new version.
Thanks for your detailed feedback, Adam.