REVIEW: Starlight Express
- Posted on January 5, 2007 4:17 PM
- 0 comments
By Donna Poynton
I caught the new tour of Starlight Express at the Liverpool Empire this summer and, I have to say, it was one of the most superb musicals I have seen in a long time. The show originally opened at the Apollo Victoria in London in 1984 and it certainly hasn't lost any of its appeal since. The production spent eighteen years on the West End and has toured already, but this production, titled The 3rd Dimension, has been uniquely updated for a new audience. Not only have a few funky, modern musical numbers been added, the audience are asked to don 3D glasses (picked up in the foyer) to witness some of the show's most exciting action. This causes great amusement among the audience who are subjected to huge pieces of shrapnel flying around, smoke billowing throughout the auditorium and sound effects being blasted into their ears! Brilliant!
The casting of this production was impeccable. James Gillan portrays Rusty, the out cast steam train, with ease and confidence and his voice never falters, sending shivers down my spine, especially during his rendition of the shows title tune 'Starlight Express.' Gillan has an excellent cast to ride alongside (pardon the pun!) including Tom Kanavan as the attractive but cocky freight-train and the super-talented Mykal Rand as the even more over-confident Electra. The show also stars Johnny Shentall who many may remember as being the final member of Popstars' Hear'Say and fiancée of ex-Steps member Lisa Scott Lee.
I can't praise highly enough the work of the costume designers on this production. The costumes are out of this world. Every 'train' has its own style, colour and accessories and make the roller skating cast look all the more breathtaking. The choreography, by Arlene Phillips, (recently a judge on BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing) deserves a round of applause of its own. To see a cast of 30 singing and dancing on roller blades is quite something (the cast attend four weeks of skate school before the show opened).
Post a comment
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.seatwaveblogs.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/350
