The original production of Starlight Express opened at the New Victoria Theatre (now the Apollo) in 1984 and ran until 2002. There have been other productions overseas and British touring versions which were adapted to suit conventional theatres, but this is a brand new production in a specially reconstructed auditorium which once again takes the action of this musical on roller-skates on tracks through the audience as well as around its main stage.
Inspired by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s love of Thomas the Tank Engine and the Rev W Awdry’s other railway stories, its characters are almost all railway rolling stock: locomotives, trucks and carriages with the action built around races in which steam engines, electric and diesel compete to be fastest.
It begins with a child playing with their trains before their mother put them to bed. When the lights are out, they become The Controller, running their own dream railway, and the show takes off. Six youngsters (both boys and girls) share the role across performances, and the confident playing of Cristian Buttaci, the one I saw, was impressive, for, though not on skates, it is demanding.
Set and auditorium seem to give everyone a good view and bring the roller action close up. The plot is scanty: steam engine Rusty (Jeevan Braich, making his professional stage debut) is friends with good-looking carriage Pearl (Kayna Montecillo) and really would like to be more. When the race is proposed, older steam engine Momma (Jade Marvin), a former fastest, decides to compete against bragging electric locomotive Electra (Tom Pigram) and diesel Greaseball (Al Knott). She wins her heat but is exhausted and Rusty takes her place, though Pearl doesn’t couple up.
British Rail took steam trains out of regular service in 1968, but even now, let alone in 1984, there’s a nostalgic affection for them—not least for me, as my grandfather used to drive one. But all that fossil fuel burning we now see as a problem. Over the years, both the original and later productions have seen incorporated changes. Now we have a new character, Hydra (Jaydon Vijn), a truck with a new fuel, hydrogen, who will become Rusty’s supporter.
Colourfully kitted out in costumes that are a mixture of retro and Transformers movie, a cross to suggest machines with personality, these characters move in a setting that gives us colourful planets rising and falling, a sky full of stars and pulsing lighting including lasers. There is plenty to dazzle the senses both to see and to hear with a great band and good voices in songs that range across genres, though if your memories go back so far, they may make you remember the ’80s. Sometimes, there is such a big sound that lyrics get swamped. Jade Marvin’s Momma comes through especially clearly, but the quieter numbers come over best.
Singing seated, Marvin can connect with the audience, something not so easy when a performer is flashing by, but watch newcomer Braich’s face, and Montecillo and Vijn both bring great personality to their characterisations.
Starlight Express has no pretensions to profundity, but it is entertainment that offers its own thrill.