My brother (Steven Skeels) originated the role of Rusty when it first opened in fall 1988. Riva Rice was Pearl and both reprised their roles when it opened in 1993 at the Las Vegas Hilton/USA. I have playbills from both shows. Went to the show in US....although my dream was/is to see it before it closes in Bochum with my young grandson who adores anything "train" related.
Well for the first time in the Bochum shows history they performed it in English last March for one night with Andrew lloyd webber and Arlene Phillips present & they realised that the show was'nt working as it should be and had man plot and musical discrepancies in it because of all the changes made to both the plot and score. So with that in mind they held a 5 day workshop of the show here in London at a smal theatre called the other palace wich Andrew owns, and they [produced the show in concert form without skates and came up with new characters for the show as well as new songs which are going into the show in Bochum 1st in time for their 30th anniversary. The biggest of these changes is that they're changing Poppa to Mama as well as making some of the national Engines female and introducing 2 new female coaches to replace Buffy & Ashley that are more in keeping with women in todays world and to address some of the gender imbalances that have existed in the show all these years. The show itself is closing down for a month to allow for the changes to be put in place as well as the theatre and technical alterations to the set & lighting ect to be made as well. The show is then going to be re-launched as a new show with the new elements in place and performed in English again as well as German with the view of producing a new UK/US tour and possibly a new stationary production in the West End. All very exciting news. Starlight's getting a new life and is living on for the next generation. :-) WO-HOO! or should i say WOO-WOO! ;-)
Oh, ein Neuling? Es gab halt ne zeitlang 4 Rockies, dann wurde Rocky 4 gekickt, die Rockies wurden zu den 3 HipHoppers, und mittlerweile gibt's wieder die Rockies (sind auch cooler als die Hopper) xD
