Starlight Express Birmingham

I think the last direct train from Birmingham to London leaves, or at least used to leave, at about 9.30pm on a Saturday night. A few years ago I remember legging it out of Symphony Hall at the end of a CBSO concert performance that finished about 9.15pm and just catching the last train that would get me home that night. (I had to go via London as the last direct train to Cambridge left before 9pm.) I've not seen Starlight Express but I presume it runs about the standard 2h30-2h45 that most musicals do, so would end too late to catch the last London train. I think the trains run later on weekdays but how many people would want to travel from London to Birmingham for an evening of theatre on a weeknight?

It's possible to get FROM London after a show to much of the UK by train or coach but travelling TO London or beyond is another matter. The service reflects the much smaller demand of course and late night London-bound trains are very quiet.

The schedule I would suggest if Starlight Express were to happenin the West midlands would be something like Saturday 2.30 and 7.30, Sunday 1.00 and 6.00, Tuesday 6.00, Wednesday-Friday 7.30. That would allow journeys by public transport for at least 50% of performances from most major cities. A dedicated bus link from venue both to the city centre and to Birmingham International/Airport/NEC would be essential together with ample on-site free parking.

Every year a UK venue in a rural location puts on a show which sells all 1500 seats for all 100 performances with no nearby rail station or bus route whatsoever so it can be done (guess where ?)

It wasn’t Carrie, it was an actual actress.

Easy! Thursford in Norfolk! 

And agree that for the right show, in the right location people will travel as has been shown by Starlight in Bochum.

Like cars don't exist in Britain? 

Isn't it mostly coach parties who go there for the Christmas show rather than people driving there?
Its something I'd love to do one day as the shows look amazing.

In high school we travelled down from Yorkshire to the RSC in Stratford by coach for a show. Lots of my friends from other parts of the country also did similar trips

Yes, I understand that, but from what I can tell, the whole point of this new thing is to plonk it by the NEC near the motorway, thus make it easily accessible by car without having to drive into a chaotic city. 

@sharpe12 makes a good point about the revivals of earlier massive hits like Cats and Miss Saigon not doing well - tourists are clearly not interested in them anymore. It would be the same for Starlight Express presumably. Although it doesn't really compute with the on-going success of Phantom and Les Mis...  but let's solve that mystery another time. 

At the same time a "normal" tour of Starlight Express in regular theatres can't ever recreate the atmosphere and bombast of the original. So it makes perfect sense to create something mobile to play a certain area for 6-12 months or however long demand lasts, then move on. 

I don't think Birmingham is the best place for this really. I was trying to get some figures on theatre attendance and came across this article admittedly from 2016 but still relevant. it gave the average age for theatre attendance as 52 and the most common age 65-74. Birmingham is a young city, I live just outside and I don't think it has the population itself to support this sadly. The article is here:

Theatre risks failing to replenish its ageing audiences with a new generation because young people are looking to other art forms, research has claimed.

This is the claim of new research from the Audience Agency, which includes data from more than 500 venues and 10.6 million households. It suggested that the average age of theatre audiences will increase over the next decade.

An estimated 40% of English households attend the theatre, but just 15% see two or more shows a year, the Audience Agency said. The data added that theatre came lowest on the list of cultural activities people would recommend to their friends.

The data found that the largest age group for theatre audiences was people between the ages of 65 and 74, with the average age of an audience member being 52.

It suggested that the average age is set to increase “considerably” over the next 10 years if the profile of theatregoers remains the same and organisations do not reach out to different audiences.

Audience Agency chief executive Anne Torreggiani said that while the average age of theatregoers was increasing, audiences were not being replenished with young people, who over the next decade could instead look to other art forms.

“Our data suggests that younger audiences tend to prefer other art forms, so they are perhaps engaging more with other performing art forms, more contemporary art possibly, and museums are doing well with those groups,” she told The Stage.

Through the Audience Agency’s Audience Finder tool, which splits the population into groups linked to their household and postcode, it has been identified that the three groups engaging most highly with the arts represent 60% of theatre audiences, but just 22% of the population.

The Audience Agency claimed that these top three theatregoing groups were set to age at a faster rate than the population over the next 10 years.

Torreggiani went on to say: “By 2026, if we’re not careful, we could be feeling really confident because we’ll see an increase with the frequency in which people are coming to the theatre, we’ll probably see an increase in how much some people are willing to pay for it, but it also looks as though our audience will be getting older and not necessarily being replenished.

“There’s a danger that theatre audiences could look very healthy in 2026 without us noticing that we are increasingly failing to engage that younger audience, who are engaging with culture in a different way at the moment.”

The data was originally presented at industry conference Theatre 2016.

I don't think they always help themselves though.

I was at university in Edinburgh, where the Festival and King's Theatres did an absolutely fantastic student deal — £10 ticket, any seat (although I think they did start to restrict it to stalls or gallery only later on) as long as you bought after 12 pm on the day of the performance with a valid student card. I saw some fantastic productions doing that, especially ones that I wasn't sure enough I'd like to pay full price for.

I never saw it advertised (other than tiny print in the brochure, and then it wasn't really clear unless you knew about it). It was generally passed on by word of mouth.

I understand they don't want to sell all their seats cheaply to students, but on the other hand, how many at full price will you sell that afternoon? I asked so many people if they wanted to come to shows and they said "won't it be very expensive?", and then they happily agreed to come for £10. Tbh, I bet £15 would still have been fine.

It meant that when I did have to pay full price (Cameron Mackintosh mainly, or if I wanted to go to something at The Playhouse) I didn't mind paying more, because it still averaged out at a reasonable amount (for an impoverished student) per show. I also really got the bug for going, so now I'm a friend of my local theatre and do buy the expensive seats. (And I sponsor a bee on the Festival Theatre roof, despite not living there!)

Its a couple of stops from New St to get to Birmingham Int so easily do able.