Starlight Express - Troubadour

It was just an idle suggestion/speculation/wish mentioned on the Newsies thread…..dang I thought for a minute we’d manifested something!!!

LOL, me too. It was me who brought it up in the Newsies thread as I thought the "theatre" would be perfect for Starlight Express - it's a big empty box they could stick the sets in easily, including the skating bowl and ramps and there's a walkway which the Newsies are now using to run around the theatre, that could be perfectly turned into a race track. It should be much cheaper and better than overhauling a West End Theatre completely like they did with the Apollo Victoria and which I don't think we'll ever see again. 

And it's not a dumb thread at all, if people want to speculate about Starlight Express going in there, then it's better to do it in its own thread than derail the Newsies one. But MrBarnaby seems to delight in being rude recently, I'm not sure what's eating him.

Jeez, can you imagine the racket the skates would make on all that makeshift scaffolding! Its noisy enough with thirty lads & lasses stomping around it.

It’s akin to me saying that Sunset is coming back to the Adelphi in its original form, because I had the thought in my head. 🤦‍♂️

Yes but it'll likely be at the turbine with them on heelies and all that 3d screen nonsense we've had to contend with for the last 15 years

I appreciate that this is (ever so) sightly off topic but it staggers me how much the London Underground system is criticised.

It's because you know nothing else but (trust me) you don't know a rubbish train service, until you've waited up to 25 minutes before the next train to arrive. What we have here is London is incredible!

They just need to stick it into a big top and tour it like a circus or in arenas for one night only. Its criticised if it isn’t a spectacle and it closed because everyone had seen it…yet now we want it back bigger & better than ever do we? No doubt with 20p day seats and a free bag of candy floss? The insurance premiums alone would be crippling so I suspect we will never see Starlight as it was ever again.

I quite enjoyed the touring production I saw of Starlight, would have been about 12 or 13 years ago I think, at Theatr Clwyd. I rather enjoyed the 3D glasses for the video sections, but then I wasn’t so spoiled by pretty much every film being in 3D back then I guess. It was relatively clever for the time. Now I go to the threads and whole cars literally fly over my head so it wouldn’t cut it now!

I'd be really happy if they simply brought back the tour - it did exceptionally well running over 4 years with 3 and a bit cast changes then returning for a 5th year a few years later.

Definitely enough of an audience to sustain 3-4 week sit downs across the country and the piece is strong enough to still come across without the "tracks." Yes the set was very simple, but the sound and lighting of the last tour were sublime. With the "new" 2012 orchestrations the score sounded sensational.

Much as I'd love to see a new sit down all singing all dancing production I really do wonder if there is enough demand to justify the expense to do it properly. All the recent revivals of 80's/90's musicals would suggest not.... (Would surely need to run for 2 to 5 years minimum?!)

It’s happening. Later this year..

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Humble pie anyone?

Exactly! And I’ll still believe it when I see it. Like all the other London revivals of Starlight.

But is it happening in Wembley or is it just happening?

With Phantom closed and Bad Cinderella bombing on Broadway, ALW surely has time to dedicate himself to Starlight Express for a few months now.