From the motorcycle roaring onto the stage in Buddy to the helicopter landing in Miss Saigon to the all-roller skating extravaganza, Starlight Express, current musical theater is obsessed with wheels. This Andrew Lloyd Webber/Richard Stilgoe 1984 techno-marvel was restaged in 1992 by its original creative team and is now in its eleventh year at the Apollo Victoria Theatre. The show features skaters dressed as railroad cars, zooming around and above the audience -- up ramps and across drawbridges.
Flawlessly directed by Trevor Nunn, Starlight Express utilizes every level of the theater, from floor to ceiling. With a sparkling, high-tech set design by John Napier, choreography by Arlene Phillips that is executed precisely by an agile group of dancers, and superb lighting by David Hersey, Starlight is a technological blockbuster.
Who are the characters? Two steam trains, an electric train, a diesel locomotive, an observation car, smoking car, buffet car and dining car, box cars, an armored truck, a freezer truck, a dynamite truck, a money truck and trains from all over the world. Add spare engines and carriages and ten spirited singers, and you have a recipe for success.
