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The Musicals/Stage Productions Topic!!!

Went to the Playhouse in Liverpool this afternoon for Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein The Musical.

Were Viktors grandson Frederick inherits not only his castle but the want to raise the dead back to Life.

Really funny and with some catchy songs I really enjoyed this.

Its on in Liverpool til early January.
 
Been to see Starlight Express, at what I would call Fountain Studios, Wembley.

I'm honestly torn.

I was well aware that this was not the same show I remember from the Victoria Apollo. But it was a lot more different than I expected.
..... And none of that is "bad", per se.

It seems that almost the entire cast bar Rusty, Pearl, and Dina (and Electra*) has been gender-swapped. Not a bad thing, makes zero difference to the story, don't care.
The addition of "Control" as a child actor rather than a pre recorded voice over was strange, but worked. It helped explain the premise.... Let's be honest, if you hadn't been told it was a kid playing with their trainset, would you have known‽ (Our "Control" was a girl -clearly varies. Bonus points for the whole "girls can be geeks too" thing).

Unfortunately the whole show fell flat for me because it was .... too flat. Gone is the triple layered multi-story mayhem, in favour of a small, flat circuit. They clearly looked to the German production for inspiration. And that would be great if they were down the road in Wembley Arena. But this all happens in a small ex-TV studio. It comes across less as a "west end" production, more like a really good am dram show.
The old show was basically all held up by that epic bridge set, is what I guess I'm saying.

Another oddity was that I remember all the characters singing in that generic American accent everyone sings in by default. Now suddenly everyone (Bar Momma) is singing in a thick East London MLE "innit bruv" accent.
Not negative, just strange to my ear.

And there definitely wasn't that much rap in the original!

*Electra is still "fabulous". Sadly they are overshadowed by the new edition of "Hydrogen". Which makes no sense. Because that would also end up in electricity. But that's a whole other debate...........
 
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Uh oh! The lurking Starlight Express fan is here!
DiogoJ42 said:
Unfortunately the whole show fell flat for me because it was .... too flat. Gone is the triple layered multi-story mayhem, in favour of a small, flat circuit. They clearly looked to the German production for inspiration. And that would be great if they were down the road in Wembley Arena. But this all happens in a small ex-TV studio. It comes across less as a "west end" production, more like a really good am dram show.
The old show was basically all held up by that epic bridge set, is what I guess I'm saying.
Click to expand...

When you say 'looking to the German production for inspiration' on stage design, you only have a point when it comes to the race tracks, the bowl and the projection mapping effects. And that's it on resemblance. Otherwise the German production has had all the triple layered multi-story mayhem bells and whistles of the original West End production in the purpose built Starlight Express Theater since 1988 with 1,650 seats in comparison to the Apollo Victoria's 1,500 seats. You can see the scope of this giant arena with its own incredibly cool bridge, balconies and levels in the below videos. I cannot express how amazing it was being in that building both times I saw it a few years ago.





And, whilst I do agree the Troubador Wembley feels cramped for a show of this scale with 1,017 seats, I also want to point out that it's not the first time Starlight Express has been reduced in stage design and or production material for a production, whether permanent or touring. The more comparable productions to the current London production would be the Las Vegas Hilton ('93-'97), which had two looped race tracks and multiple levels on the oval stage and likely removed some of the 1,607 seats, and the First US Tour ('89-'91), which only had one small loop of race track for touring regional theatres.

Except in those productions and all Tours (excluding the Japan/Australia and Scandinavia arena tours), due to space restrictions and the race tracks being a source of profit contention for theatres, the races were filmed and projected on a lowered screen and, from 2003 onwards, these filmed races were redone in 3D as part of the 'Third Dimension' subtitle. The only outlier production I can name that did have the live races would be the Japan/Australia Tour, since that had a 'theatre in the round' experience and the stage was massive, video: Skip to 25m 20s, and perhaps the 2013 South African production. And, had the pandemic not happened, we may well have seen a 2021 revival at the Birmingham NEC which may have fitted the arena experience bill quite nicely.

Anyway, as small a venue the Troubador Wembley feels for Starlight Express, it's a blessing that audiences can see the races in real time as per the original Apollo Victoria run with the live race screens. And, since the current London production is the version most likely to be the 2027 world tour, there's a chance this stage design will stay or even be upscaled for bigger and more versatile venues than the proscenium arch theatres the Tours would typically go on and therefore mean no-one has to watch the filmed races.
DiogoJ42 said:
Another oddity was that I remember all the characters singing in that generic American accent everyone sings in by default. Now suddenly everyone (Bar Momma) is singing in a thick East London MLE "innit bruv" accent.
Not negative, just strange to my ear.
And there definitely wasn't that much rap in the original!
Click to expand...

The show began as an ode to American music genres, hence why most characters spoke in American accents. Granted, the American music genre ode doesn't make sense in the current London production's context since Control and Mum are both British and therefore most characters are now British.

With the rapping, there wasn't much in the original 1984 and 1992 West End versions, no. But from the Second US Tour onwards in 2003, the Rockies were replaced by... -beleagured groan-... the Hip Hoppers who carried the rap/hip hop torch and were used throughout most productions. Thankfully, the 2018 Bochum production reinstated the Rockies and the current London production nixed them alongside Dustin, Flat Top and Caboose ( :cry: ) for the Fuel Trucks. And since ALW has written all sort of new songs for this version, it's not that much of a surprise that he's added in more rap to keep the show updated.
DiogoJ42 said:
*Electra is still "fabulous". Sadly they are overshadowed by the new edition of "Hydrogen". Which makes no sense. Because that would also end up in electricity. But that's a whole other debate...........
Click to expand...

Honestly, there's a lot in Starlight Express that never made sense in the first place, such as:
  • Electra being introduced as the 'Electric Engine of the Future' when at least 3 of the National Engines at the time of the 1984 production, namely the French (TGV Sud-Est), Italian (Settebello) and Japanese (Shinkansen) Engines, were already high-speed locomotives that run on... uh, electricity. Of course, the German Engine would eventually be an ICE once they were officially inaugurated in 1991.
  • Cabooses were a requirement for all freight trains by US and Canadian law up to the '80s as a means of crew safety and shelter, as well as observing potential issues e.g. overheating axles and load shifting. Ironically, CB aka Red Caboose pretends to be nice and helpful but in fact does the opposite of what he's supposed to be doing by crashing the Engines he pairs with in the races.
  • The ending of every production having a song about how diesel/electricity/solar/nuclear energy are bad and that 'steam is the best' for being under 'their own control' when that's not necessarily the case. This adage gets funnier with the inclusion of the renewable electricity produced green hydrogen.
I'm sure there's a whole lot more that can be pointed out by the railway geeks. Still, it's all very simply hand waved away by the fact that this silly show is about an imaginative child who loves their toy trains but who clearly hasn't reached the specialist interest level (yet) and written by a guy who just wanted to make a Thomas the Tank Engine animated TV series with Rev W. Awdry but Granada TV said 'nah, ta'.

Anyway, I know I could say a lot, lot, lot more but I think that's enough Starlight Express-ing from me and glad you at least had a time. Damn this silly megamusical about trains derailing most of my day.
 
The Britishness of the new cast has grown on me a lot over the last two days. I've also had that "chug chug" pre-show music loop stuck in my head for two days.
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