Starlight Express - Troubadour

[gmoneyoutlaw]

Starlight Express to Wembley Troubadour 2024

I looked for a thread on this or Starlight, nothing here.

The theatre is perfect for Starlight, but do they want it. The expectation I think would be for an open ended run.

[theatrelover123]

What’s this based on? Odd thread to start?

[kyvai]

It was just an idle suggestion/speculation/wish mentioned on the Newsies thread…..dang I thought for a minute we’d manifested something!!!

[christya]

Oh come on, I thought this was real for a minute!

[viserys]

Apr 10, 2023 23:57:02 GMT kyvai said:

...dang I thought for a minute we’d manifested something!!!

LOL, me too. It was me who brought it up in the Newsies thread as I thought the "theatre" would be perfect for Starlight Express - it's a big empty box they could stick the sets in easily, including the skating bowl and ramps and there's a walkway which the Newsies are now using to run around the theatre, that could be perfectly turned into a race track. It should be much cheaper and better than overhauling a West End Theatre completely like they did with the Apollo Victoria and which I don't think we'll ever see again. 

And it's not a dumb thread at all, if people want to speculate about Starlight Express going in there, then it's better to do it in its own thread than derail the Newsies one. But MrBarnaby seems to delight in being rude recently, I'm not sure what's eating him.

[luvvie23]

Gutted this isn’t true! X

[danb]

Jeez, can you imagine the racket the skates would make on all that makeshift scaffolding! Its noisy enough with thirty lads & lasses stomping around it.

[ceebee]

This thread certainly gave me something to choo-choo over.

[danb]

It’s akin to me saying that Sunset is coming back to the Adelphi in its original form, because I had the thought in my head. 🤦‍♂️

[alece10]

But ALW did indicate that it was coming back during his recent birthday documentary on BBC so we can be hopeful.

[Being Alive]

Yes but it'll likely be at the turbine with them on heelies and all that 3d screen nonsense we've had to contend with for the last 15 years

[og]

Apr 11, 2023 10:24:12 GMT Being Alive said:

Yes but it'll likely be at the turbine with them on heelies and all that 3d screen nonsense we've had to contend with for the last 15 years

Or maybe repurpose the big red bus from Summer Holiday because the rail replacement service seems to be the most reliable part of the railway system currently.

[anthony40]

I appreciate that this is (ever so) sightly off topic but it staggers me how much the London Underground system is criticised.

It's because you know nothing else but (trust me) you don't know a rubbish train service, until you've waited up to 25 minutes before the next train to arrive. What we have here is London is incredible!

[christya]

Apr 11, 2023 5:01:41 GMT viserys said:

LOL, me too. It was me who brought it up in the Newsies thread as I thought the "theatre" would be perfect for Starlight Express - it's a big empty box they could stick the sets in easily, including the skating bowl and ramps and there's a walkway which the Newsies are now using to run around the theatre, that could be perfectly turned into a race track. It should be much cheaper and better than overhauling a West End Theatre completely like they did with the Apollo Victoria and which I don't think we'll ever see again.

I wish I could find the quote from years ago, but I'd be shocked if we ever got Starlight back in a 'normal' theatre. I read something along the lines of 'Most theatre owners would rather burn the place down than let Starlight Express in there' - it was a comment on the gutting necessary, not on the show itself.

[danb]

They just need to stick it into a big top and tour it like a circus or in arenas for one night only. Its criticised if it isn’t a spectacle and it closed because everyone had seen it…yet now we want it back bigger & better than ever do we? No doubt with 20p day seats and a free bag of candy floss? The insurance premiums alone would be crippling so I suspect we will never see Starlight as it was ever again.

[FrontrowverPaul]

We saw an amateur version of Starlight Express at the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil in 2016, staged by Motiv8. They had also performed it in 2015

The staging and performances would have been impressive for a professional production but as an amateur show it was just incredible. My 2016 diary tells me it was my favourite amateur show out of over 50 of them I saw that year. At the time their website stated that they were both the first and the last amateur group to present it, suggesting that maybe a professional production was in the offing.

I don't recall it being a youth theatre show but given the costumes and that youth theatre can be teenagers and up to age 21 it might have been.

[kyvai]

I quite enjoyed the touring production I saw of Starlight, would have been about 12 or 13 years ago I think, at Theatr Clwyd. I rather enjoyed the 3D glasses for the video sections, but then I wasn’t so spoiled by pretty much every film being in 3D back then I guess. It was relatively clever for the time. Now I go to the threads and whole cars literally fly over my head so it wouldn’t cut it now!

[d'James]

The most recent tour was my favourite because A Whole Lotta Locomotion was the best version. I preferred the earlier tours’ version of Only He to I Do.

I’m not sure I want to see the new version in the UK. I can’t stand I Got Me and it’s overkill. Some changes are fine like Momma and female engines but I think they need to go further. The choreography I’ve seen online reverts to the male/female roles they’re trying to break from.

[BVM]

I'd be really happy if they simply brought back the tour - it did exceptionally well running over 4 years with 3 and a bit cast changes then returning for a 5th year a few years later.

Definitely enough of an audience to sustain 3-4 week sit downs across the country and the piece is strong enough to still come across without the "tracks." Yes the set was very simple, but the sound and lighting of the last tour were sublime. With the "new" 2012 orchestrations the score sounded sensational.

Much as I'd love to see a new sit down all singing all dancing production I really do wonder if there is enough demand to justify the expense to do it properly. All the recent revivals of 80's/90's musicals would suggest not.... (Would surely need to run for 2 to 5 years minimum?!)

[BVM]

Apr 11, 2023 8:03:19 GMT alece10 said:

But ALW did indicate that it was coming back during his recent birthday documentary on BBC so we can be hopeful.

Indeed he did! He also teased a return in one of his very first lockdown vids in 2020. Though think that may have been referring to the now seemingly dead in the water Birmingham NEC suggestion!

Ah well. At least we know he hasn't forgotten about this show entirely with his incessant musings on Phantom and Cinderella. 

[mrbarnaby]

It’s happening. Later this year..

[alece10]

Well it's the perfect venue and could work really well. A lot of people have been saying recently that it would be great venue if the show came back, so fingers crossed this will happen.
It's just that bl**dy trek to Wembley.

[steve10086]

I’ll believe it when I see it.

[Being Alive]

Have also heard the same, although I'd heard early 2024 - I'm aware I said this is not a thing but then 24 hours after this thread appeared I was informed this is a thing 😂

[BurlyBeaR]

Humble pie anyone?