This is really almost more show than musical. It's crazy big here in Germany, there's a theater in Bochum built solely for Starlight Express. I've seen it live 3 times now, it never disappoints. The actors skate right through the audience.
Oh yes, I love it as well and the 'new' bridge which is moving is so cool, and the lightning show as well!!! Almost watch it every year but it's still amazing!
OMG! As a German, my first theater show was Starlight Express in Bochum! Bochum made it's own special theatre for the musical and there is an awsome video in German about the 50th anniversary for Bochum
"Wait in the Wings" has a great video on how Andrew Lloyd Webber came up with the concept of Starlight and the Behind the Scenes of how this show was originally produced.
It's still running in Germany, celebrating their 30 Anniversary one or two years ago. They build an extra theatre for it, that's why the English versions of this show (be it Broadway or West end) aren't as impressive in the racing action and stage design. If you can get hold of a recording definitly worth a watch. Went there 3 times as a kid. And on being confused about the plot: It is basically the dream of a small kid where trains have a big racing competition to find out who's the best Locomotive. Also romance and rivalry. Essentially its the Andrew Loyd webber musical that's even weirder than CATS XD
Hi, So fantastic to see you enjoying the show, I was in this very production for seven years, I think I’m in some of the clips your showing here. To answer your question we were an international cast from many countries, we were all professionally trained dancers and singers, some of us had some skating experience but not everyone,, we had an extensive rehearsal period of a few months where we all learned to skate on the set, learn the dancing and of course learn the show in German, as most of us were not German speaking.
The best thing about this production for me is that it remaind in the same building for over 30 years. My dad has been working there since '98 but some of his collegues have been there since the beginning in '88 and apart from the cast changing ever year most backstage workers are still the same. It makes for a very familiar atmosphere and its a lovely place. Gotta say tho that the new version of the show kinda killed it for me, but maybe just because i watched the old one so many times as a kid...
I found the English soundtrack on youtube, at least the old version... I think they changed it by the time I got to see it... I think it was in the West End, I'm thinking early 90s, but I was pretty young at the time so I don't remember exactly... In the older soundtrack there's a song about a sleeping car, which I don't think was in the version I saw... Sometimes they do stuff like that... Oh well lol. They seem to have toured a bit about 8 or 9 years ago, not sure if they have done it again since... There are some clips in English around if you want to check them out. The story is kinda weird, but who cares? The music is great and there are people wearing roller-skates and pretending to be trains, racing... Does it even make sense to race trains? I mean they should be on set tracks, but I guess? I dunno... It's still fun lol. I kinda hope one day they might make a film version or at least film the stage version so it's out there for everyone to be baffled by ^_^;. Maybe don't do it like the recent Cats film though >_>;
The actors learn to scate for month before their first show (they mostly have a dance/theatre background) The cast in Bochum is international and so some of them have strong accents.
It's worth coming to Germany only for this musical!! I love the song 'a loc with locomotion' but they cancelled this song. I was so sad!! It's so cool you reacted to a German musical! I don't needed to turn on the subtitles to understand the video haha
Ok so a few people on here have explained a little bit about the show, but I'll go a little deeper for you (if you don't mind reading a long assed post lol) Soooo basically the whole show takes place in a childs dream. And is VERY looasely based on Cinderella, but gender swapped. Rusty is Cinders, Pearl the prince and Greaseball and Electra are like the Ugly Sisters with the Starlight Express being like the Fairy Godmother or Train God, with instead of balls like in Cinderella they have races instead. At the start of the show the child(Known as Control throughout the rest of the show and is unseen usually)is playing with their toy train set when His/Her Mum tells him to go to bed. As they start to fall asleep the dream starts to take place as the overture kicks in and it goes into the first number sung by Greaseball and his gang(he's a diesel engine and one of the bad guy's) We then go on to meet Rusty(the good guy who gets bullied by the other engines cuz he wants to race and win the heart of Pearl) We then go on to meet the carriages that include Pearl & Dinah(whos Greaseballs GF) who are friends alongside Carrie the luggage waggon and Belle the bar car. We meet various other National engines , Carriages and Trucks as well as a late star entry, Electra the electric engine of the future. Basically most of the 1st quarter of the 1st act is all a big set up introducing the characters leading up to the 1st big race. There's 2 heats with the 2 winners from each heat going through to the final race. We also meet Pappa/Mamma (depending on which version your watching) who tells Rusty about the Starlight Express(Fairy Godmother/Train God) but Rusty isn't sure he believes. There are various sub plots involving other characters, but the main one is really about Rusty having faith in himself to race because eventually the Starlight Express does appear to him and inspires him to race again by telling him HE'S the starlight express! In the show this has ALWAYS been a special and spectacular moment and different in every single version of the show around the world. It usually involved a lot of dry ice, lazers, fibre optics and sometimes flying and drones. Its a unique and VERY emotional moment(If you don't cry you have a heart of stone!) I wont tell you anymore as I don't want to spoil it completely, but it is an EPIC show! Its a shame that it didn't run longer on Broadway but they altered the story, songs and character arcs a bit too much from the original London production that opened in 1984. It was supposed to tour the WHOLE of the US in Arenas TWICE but the 1st time the producer pulled out and it went to Broadway instead , the 2nd time the set that they were going to use from the Japan/Australia 87 & 1990 arena tour was lost in a fire sadly. So that never happened. It has toured the US twice though after Broadway closed in 2 very much scaled down productions from 89-91 and then from 2003-2004, but both tours were limited runs and not in all states. It also had a residency in Las Vegas for 4 years that was scaled down in time and set. it ran without an intermission at 90 mins long. The Japan/Australian tour and its set was HUGE with a cast of 68 as opposed to 24-28 and featured specialist stunt skaters. There's a few bootlegged recordings of London, Broadway and Japan/Australia(tough not full show. I'll post links to them below for you. The quality varies, some are VERY old and filmed using in house systems or on camera phones but are watchable. The first one is from the final performance in London in 2001 and was known as the NEW Starlight express that was given an overhaul in 1992 until it closed. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PellxdmWyjI.html Now this 2nd one is a strange one as the video is made up of about 3 different performances, filmed on the in house cameras to monitor the stage and races, but has a separate soundtrack, BUT you get a great idea of what the set was like. It was pieced together in 1988: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6zsti1rfTrQ.html 3rd is Broadway and isn't a full recording as you will see. Again you get an idea of how very different the set was compared to London and Germany and some of the songs. It starts at the end of Electras ACDC song. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YPSwg2FOJbs.html Thirdly here is some footage from the Japan/Australian tour which had a HUGE set and cast and again VERY different to the other set designs, which were all designed by the same guy , John Napier. And yes he did win a Tony award for it on Broadway, in fact it was THE only award it won on Broadway.: This is like a highlights video from the Japan/Australia tour. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ItAZ9Mip_U8.html Here's a promo video from the same tour which shows you the cast from auditioning to being cast and rehearsing on the set to their first night. the voice over/presenter is speaking in Japanese but its still watchable and the cast are mostly are an international cast , but mostly speak in English. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eAc4mFA757U.html I hope you enjoy these videos and anyone else who might be interested in STEX. Im an avid fan of the show , first saw it in 1988 in London and used to go and watch it at least twice a year until it closed and then saw it multiple times on both UK tours. Really want to see it in Germany one day and can't wait for the new Birmingham production to open next year. If you made it this far then well done and Thanks for reading. :-) Some friends of mine were lucky to do a zoom panel reunion of the original London cast of STEX talking about their time on the show which might interest you. Here's the video of that day. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NZlwWfXoDDU.html
So first of all, I will repeat what other people said before me. This show is absolutely amazing. I’ve seen it 3 times now and it’s so brilliant every single time. ❤️ Now as for the actors, they are all musical/theatre experienced but will receive 12 weeks of skate training prior to their debut. It’s soo much seeing it for the first time, as in you don’t know where to look first. Easily one of the most unique and entertaining musicals out there. Plus ever since the changes for the 30 year anniversary there are even more mindblowing stunts and special effects. ✨
Starlight Express is a musical basically about Trains racing across the country. Rusty (steam train) is trying to prove that he's still a useful train, but Greaseball (Union Pacific Diesel engine) and Electra (electric train) keep putting Rusty down and beating up Rusty while they race across the country.
2:19 “oh my god! Holy $#!¥... I need to see this show!” I love it, that is one of the two general reactions to seeing Starlight Express for the first time, the other is the negative one, but we don’t need that in our lives so I’m just going to Jones off the good vibes this just gave me🥰
The whole show has been revamped in 2018, with different lighting, costumes, songs and characters, so it is totally different. Unfortunately it doesn't have the level of speed or choreography that it used to. Papa has been replaced with mamma and the coaches Ashley and Buffy with Carrie and Belle. Volta is male and there is a female engine named Coco. The set isn't used as much. The whole set is painted black to allow projection lighting. Personally I think they have ruined it. You can check out the megamix old and new on you tube as this is allowed to be filmed, at the end of the show. From June 2018 the new show started. Just type in starlight express megamix and the year to see the differences. Will be interesting to see what you think of the changes. The cast are from all over the world but mostly English. They have auditions each year in parts of Germany and London. They start in February at skate school. They have a dance and singing audition and train for 3 months for the show, which the new cast starts in may. They are taught German, skating and the choreography before they go on the stage and then have to learn star jumps and coming down the bowl (the huge curve part) and the racing sequences. The show was shut in march 2020 due to covid but hopefully due to open in late October.
I thought that most people were from English speaking countries? (at least that's what I remember from an Interview with starlight express) But yeah, most people in the cast - like over 90% - aren't Germans and then they only have a few month to learn German.
i love this reaction! im a big starlight fan :) to answer your question: they are casting musical actors/actress and then they are learning skating for 3 months in "skate school" hope this helped you.
If you want to hear the songs "Starlight Express" "Nur mit dir" (Only with you) und "Es gibt ein Licht ganz am Ende des Tunnels" (There's a light at the end of the tunnel) and see a part of the race, I recommend this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Av3z5Y_Azwg.html
If you want to react to some of the music, the whole German Album is on RU-vid. There is also a Medley of the songs in German with English subs ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-E5_sAWLEbes.html Most of the footage for Starlight are visits they did in German TV shows (they are holder in the Guinness Book for the longest running Musical).
There is a good filmed version of Electra's and Greaseball's song you could react to from a concert: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-j0MnderPOWk.html
Still running in Bochum, about to reopen in October after Covid. Rumours that it may be being brought back to UK as well (Andrew Lloyd-Webber let slip). Look on You Tube - loads of clips from UK, US Tour, Broadway and Bochum.
