Starlight Express

Racing trains, a love story and the magical Starlight Express are all images of a child’s imagination which come to life in this Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Rival trains battle to become the fastest engine and create a difficult yet exciting challenge for any society who chose to perform this musical, and all whilst skating. It was great to see such a young cast take up this challenge and provide a fantastic night’s entertainment for all the audience.

The simple set of metal and lighting created a great look and feel for the trains to use as they raced around the stage. The exclusion of ramps created more space on stage for some very creative and exciting patterns and linked skating by the whole cast including the snail which was very impressive.

The opening number “Rolling Stock” set the tone with excellent singing and great harmonies. Electra (Cory Evans) and Greaseball (Hugh Cotton) performed well, along with the Red Caboose (Joseph Richards) creating lots of laughs in “One Rock ‘n’ Roll Too Many”.

“Poppas Blues” was a standout number with Ewan Ling creating a character that gave us a good combination of fun and caring. The four carriages, Duvay (Gabby Pickin), Buffy (Chloe Carter), Dinah, (Millie Beard) and Pearl (Jenny Perry) worked well together. Jenny Perry sang extremely well with great felling in “He’ll whistle at me” and her believable relationship with Rusty came to the fore when they both sang beautifully together in “I do”.

An all-round great ensemble performance had several highlights from the Hip Hoppers, who all had fantastic energy every time they were on stage an especially in “The Rap, to the great cameo parts of Flat Top (Matthew Gaunt) and Dustin (Naomi Barnett).

Rusty was played with great vulnerability and feeling by Oliver Davenport, his lovely voice pulling the audience into each of his scenes. A natural skill which is great to see from someone so young.

The race scenes were pre- recorded and played back on screens these gave a clear impression of the races which can be lost when just skated. The trains, trucks and carriages were all clearly defined by the excellent costumes, congratulations to the whole costume team.

The Directors Jill Mason and Victoria Lee must be congratulated, their time, effort and belief in the society was well rewarded and they must be very proud of all the cast and their great performances. Louise Bours ensured that the music had the full range of pace, light and shade and the choreography by Louise Carter showed the skating skills of the cast combined with dance moves. The patterns created showed great vision which is not often seen in many versions of this show.

The “Mega-mix” at the end of the show, deservedly had the audience clapping and joining in creating a real feel good feeling for the audience as they went home, now doubt, singing along with the tune from the night.

Congratulations to all involved, thanks for a great night out and for your hospitality, I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.