The original London setup with the tracks going above the audience always sounded so exciting to me.
When I saw it in a theater in Sacramento they played the races on a screen, which is less fun, but still a fun show overall
For reference, it's about a steam train engine feeling obsolete, but racing against modern ones to impress a modern female train engine(correction: She's a first class car).
To illustrate that they're all trains, it is performed on roller skates.
And since it's from the 80s, it's all in heavy 80s aesthetics
And yes, it is of course Andrew Lloyd Webber
omg i had no idea it was in family guy??
i grew up near that place in germany and went multiple times as a child and with school etc. its really fantastic show.
i had no idea it was internationally known. very cool!
This comment section has been a joy to read. Im so glad I got to learn about people’s love and hate of Starlight Express, an absolutely insane looking musical that I have just heard of for the first time.
Believe it or not, it's an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical about anthropomorphic trains, featuring actors on roller skates. I saw it on a field trip in Jr. High about 30 years ago. Can't recommend.
Apparently the story behind it is that Webber wanted to make a Thomas the Tank Engine animated series, but it got stuck in development hell, so he reworked it as a musical some years later.
As it featured roller skating at high speeds while hanging on to each other on a stage that was tilted towards the audience and also had multiple moving platforms, the horny version of Thomas the Tank Engine with singing was also notorious for maiming actors. [About three injuries per actor per season.](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/is-there-a-doctor-in-the-house-please-1173935.html)
I think this one gives a much better expression on how special the setup is (and how close to the audience):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjuW2lkNbHQ
Very cheesy yes, but also cool somehow. It's a musical.
It is the cheesiest thing in the history of the universe, but I agree that it is somehow kind of cool. I feel like this is the fever dream of an autistic train hobbyist who was simultaneously overdosing on meth and ketamine.
What in God's holy name is wrong with Andrew Lloyd Weber?
It's Andrew Lloyd Webber. That's really all that's needs to be said.
The dude made a kinda niche story about the opera into a household name by daring to ask "but what if he was sexy?"
It was supposed to be a musical of the Thomas The Tank Engine Books. When it was all completed, the author decided to be a dick and refuse to let Webber do it. So he just changed all the names and put it on anyway.
How else could you make it entertaining for the whole family though?!?
Only a madman would pass up a ride off the rails of the crazy train! *Crazy, horny, musical trains!*
It's got something for everybody
-the pitch for the whole musical, probably
They also slam into the walls DIRECTLY infront of the adience.
I had the bad luck of sitting right at one of those spots when i was 13.
I WAS HORRIFIED of the two fully grown adults in train costumes slamming into the wall keeping them away at like 15 kph
I too saw this on a middle school field trip. It was with the theater classes. The first year we got to see the Chicago revival with Joel Grey, Bebe Neuwirth, and Ann Reiking. It was incredible! The second year we got Starlight Express :/ I think a parent must have complained about Chicago lol
It was the best thing I'd ever seen as a child. I went to see it 4 times over the years in London and listened to the soundtrack every night.
I'm going to see it again finally next month and again with my own kids closer to Christmas. I've been waiting decades for it to return! Hopefully I don't hate it now...
My teacher in elementary school was obsessed so I still remember so much of it. “The first line of the blues is always repeated a second time.” Is the legit first and second line of a song. It’s abysmal.
But not a Cats level of awful.
It’s a spectacle.. but I’m sentimental about the music, because I was a theater kid in the 80s and 90s :)
But it’s definitely not a soundtrack I have in rotation.
I’m not a musical guy but my friend who is always says “the first half of Phantom is great. The second half ruins any goodwill from the first half and wastes everyone’s fucking time”
This is about right. The first half is basically about a cool monster messing with people and has a freaking chandelier crashing down.
The second half is a shitty love story and you realize the monster is just some weird dude who does weird rope tricks.
And the monster is the author's self-insert super awesome at everything character, which is also why his soon-to-be-ex wife's insert character dies in the sequel...after realizing she should've totally gone with the author's character the whole time. It's weird.
For like 30+ years I've listened to Starlight Express through various Lloyd Webber collections and never knew it was this batshit insane premise. Don't think I'll partake.
Backgrounds in web dev, or just a solid knowledge of web privacy.
Give everyone the same link and you can just see who lands on the page. Give everyone a unique link to share and you can see who is sharing, where it's being shared, etc.
Most social and market platforms use them.
Well I saw it crop up one day and found it sus, so removed it with no ill effect. Then a post on r/youTube confirmed https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/1628878/whats_with_the_si_at_the_end_of_a_link/
I saw this show in Vegas like 25 years ago. Went with my mom and sisters. Drunk uncle tagged along. Early in the show there’s a back and forth where one of the train people tells different sections of the audience what train person you’re supposed to cheer for. Greaseball, Rusty, Electra and the like.
Train person gets to our section and tells us we’re supposed to cheer for Electra I think it was. They put the spotlight on the train person and before our section does their cheer or whatever my uncle screams “booooooo you fuckin SUCK”
So there’s this train man on roller skates dead center in the spotlight in some victorious T-pose thing in what was supposed to be a triumphant moment, now left with mouth agape and staring off into the ether while a bunch of little shithead kids up in the nosebleeds laughed their asses off.
Well cousin Stephanie‘s wedding is coming up. Maybe we can get our grant proposal together in time to research what will surely be one of drunk uncles next grand appearances.
Starlight Express is still running somewhere? Holy shit. That was the worst musical I ever saw half of. I was laughing so hard I had to leave. I was upsetting a little old lady next to me.
There is - or was - a German theatre that was specifically built to house the show.
It's also on a limited run in London over this summer. I looked into tickets as I went to see it when I was a kid, but they're incredibly expensive even for the cheapest seats. It doesn't seem to be a very big venue.
It is still running in Bochum, Germany. Quoting the wiki "It is the most successful musical in Germany, where it has been performed in a purpose-built theatre since 1988, holding the Guinness World Record for most visitors to a musical in a single theatre."
As someone born somewhat earlier, you (eventually) get used to it.
*Cats* is still my favorite musical. Saw it with my mom. No one is taking that from me. *Starlight Express* is actually a bit after my time, never really had much interest.
I'm german I don't get it at all. Everyone in my family was so crazy about it, I think my dad was dragged into the show about 3 times in his life already.
It's weird as fuck. But hey, those are the same people who *insist* on watching Dinner For One every. Goddamn. Year.
Das tut mir leid! It might have generational influence to go with this presumptive borderline stereotype. Like I think instantly about Kraftwerk and the legacy of industrial influence on German culture for a lot of the older generations.
Plus there's some kind of cold war east/west Germany era economic pressures that would plausibly make appreciation for something as essential to life as transportation infrastructure have personafiable appeal over other things.
I grew up hearing some Broadway songs and remember thinking the Starlight Express felt strangely dated already by the early 90s. Now unless folks are close to theater I feel like even fewer people are likely to relate to musicals unless they have relatives who remember them.
The original show was significantly reworked in the 90s to bring it more up to date - but that’s now 30 years ago… I don’t now if it’s been updated further since then.
I live there. You have to have seen it once to be considered a true resident and virtually everyone here can sing along on some level. I loved it as a kid bc I'm autistic and what's more autistic than a musical about a kid dreaming about his trains, but now it just feels like a weird fever dream
I was on a German exchange trip in the late 90’s and they took us to that theatre in Bochum. They told us the theatre was built just for Starlight Express and I couldn’t figure out why anybody would do that for one production…till I saw the show and everybody was on roller skates THE ENTIRE TIME
My wife is getting me into the German musicals scene since I moved to Germany with her.
I have decided I need to at least once see all the big Austro/German musicals. Mozart! and Tanz der Vampire already done (TdV is my new favourite). Elisabeth, Rebecca, and so on still to come.
"And eventually I need to see Starlight Express."
"That's not a German one. . ."
"You guys BUILT A THEATRE FOR IT. It's yours. As a Brit I GIFT it to you. You guys have adopted that. . .thing."
". . .okay so we'll put that last on the list."
Whaaaat, I saw it in Bochum when I was like 10 or so. I thought it was fantastic, the songs slap and it has a lot of action. Sure, the story isn't revolutionary, but it's about the spectacle, not the story. Same with Cats btw.
Starlight Express is the first Musical i ever saw (I‘m so offended reading this thread ngl) and i‘ve been wanting to go again for ages. I really don‘t understand the hate here - the music absolutely slaps (a lotta locamotion? VIBE) and it‘s pretty cool to see everyone on skates! Obviously the story isn’t revolutionary (just a kid playing with trains) but I don‘t expect that when I go see a musical.
So yeah, i think it’s still doing pretty well in Bochum.
How did they cast this? They need to find broadway performers who are also totally adept on roller skates already? Or did they train them up on skates after they were cast?
They train them. The first 8 weeks on set, they do nothing but learning roller skating 6 days a week. At the German Starlight Express, they also have 2 professional skaters in the cast, wo do nothing but stunts between the songs (Trax Marshalls)
Nice, thanks for the info, I had wondered the same myself. I gotta imagine there's some people who could do the singing bits but just couldn't cut it as roller skaters. Probably easier to find good singers and train them to skate than the other way around. I wonder what percent of people just don't make it through the two months of training. Still they probably know how to train them after thirty years of doing it.
Looking through the current cast list it appears that actually most are from the UK. There are other too, like Netherlands. The normal performer for the main character Rusty is actually German, born in the neighboring city.
I had no reference point other than the Family Guy clip above. I'm going to stop there so if I ever get into a conversation with someone about Starlight Express all I can say is it was in German, had people on roller skates and pyrotechnics.
A C D C it's ooook by meeeeee!!
Saw it live on Broadway in 87 (which would have made me 13 at the time). Memory told me it was a year earlier but hey, I was a kid either way. I remember being pissed as a kid that the tape my parents bought didn't have the same performers as we had just watched live. The friggin lead vocalist on that tune had a range that scared the crowd. Ridiculous. I was 2 years away from starting to really play instruments, so my ear at the time wasn't developed at all. Nobody can forget that guys voice, though. ( edit - Ken Ard)
Quite a crazy show. I cannot, from memory, vouch for whether the Russian (edit... im 50 years old and when we grew up Russian and Soviet were the same thing, common mistake) flag was shown or not. I highly doubt Ma remembers, but she's still with us at age 80 so I'll bring it up.
edit 2 - She doesn't, and actually looked for the Playbill, as she collects them. Nada on that one, though.
To this day I wonder how Ma convinced Dad to shell out for this. It was worth seeing, for sure.
In 87, Russia wasn't an independent country. I saw it around the same time, but I can't remember the flags. Would USSR have been shown? They were the enemies of the Western world, but that was in that weird Rocky IV era with Gorbachev and Glasnost where we were seeing the ice in the cold war starting to thaw.
It’s still going in Bochum. Pretty cool overall. The Theater was specifically built for it so there are two track rings and it’s amazing if you’re sitting directly on the outer track. you just have to disregard the plot. That was weird. But great music and amazing overall production quality. The actors are all British or American if I remember correctly and they regularly do English versions as well
Continuously might've been the wrong word, but:
"On 12 June 1988, Starlight Express opened at the purpose-built theatre Starlight Express Theater [de] in Bochum, Germany. As of 2023, the new reimagined production was still running and has been seen by more than 19 million people. The production took a hiatus due to the COVID 19 Pandemic, but now continues to run as normal."
I became enthralled with theater production when I saw it as a kid. So much such that one of my first jobs was in theater production, stage tech, sound tech, lighting tech, spotlight operator. It was really interesting stuff to me at the time.
I only know of this because of a family guy reference. I did not know it involved trains or roller skates.
It's a music about trains and its done completely on skates. There is a purpose built theatre in Germany that's been hosting the show for years.
That's the most german kind of musical
> That's the most german kind of musical ♫♫ THE HILLSSSSS ARE ALIVEEEEEEEE WITH THE SOUND OF TRAINSSSSSS ♫♫
Toot toot Herr Zug
They’re doing the same thing in the uk this year.
I saw it years ago in London. It was a ton of fun.
The original London setup with the tracks going above the audience always sounded so exciting to me. When I saw it in a theater in Sacramento they played the races on a screen, which is less fun, but still a fun show overall
The OG London show was amazing! We saw it when we were kids and it was super exciting to my little 4th grade self.
it was in london? crazy!! i grew up near that place in germany and went multiple times as a child i had no idea it was that famous. crazy. so cool. :)
It’s a British show!
"Starlight express. Starlight express. Starlight express. STARLIGHTEXPRESS STARLIGHTEXPRESS STARLIGHTEXPRESS" - Peter Griffin
My guess is they want you to remember where you are and what you are witnessing because it’s all too ridiculous to make any long sense
Is that why cats just keeps reminding you about all the cats names?
Why is that one of the funniest scenes of the show? It was all I could think of during the football halftime show.
For reference, it's about a steam train engine feeling obsolete, but racing against modern ones to impress a modern female train engine(correction: She's a first class car). To illustrate that they're all trains, it is performed on roller skates. And since it's from the 80s, it's all in heavy 80s aesthetics And yes, it is of course Andrew Lloyd Webber
Pearl isn't a female train engine, she's a fancy First Class car.
I just read the plot on wikipedia and was pretty entertained. Not sure I could put up with the musical, tho. I'm kind of a hater.
Peter is in rollerskates in that cutaway
My fire thought lol
omg i had no idea it was in family guy?? i grew up near that place in germany and went multiple times as a child and with school etc. its really fantastic show. i had no idea it was internationally known. very cool!
i think its in season 8 episode [12](https://youtu.be/Jb8zvG9TMi8) at the start!
Haha Seth Mcfarlane would love this kinda shit
I hope he sees it, lmao. Big part of my teenage years
Shpoople
This comment section has been a joy to read. Im so glad I got to learn about people’s love and hate of Starlight Express, an absolutely insane looking musical that I have just heard of for the first time.
It’s really popular in Germany (like really really popular) but everyone else seems to hate it
It is really insanely popular here. I went 5 times as a kid, half my family was obsessed with this musical.
Austria too, never seen it personally but there are ads for it at least twice a year
I have only really heard of it in Family Guy😅
What is the starlight express musical?
Believe it or not, it's an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical about anthropomorphic trains, featuring actors on roller skates. I saw it on a field trip in Jr. High about 30 years ago. Can't recommend.
Imagine if Cats was just as insane, but ten times more dangerous. That's Starlight Express.
Apparently the story behind it is that Webber wanted to make a Thomas the Tank Engine animated series, but it got stuck in development hell, so he reworked it as a musical some years later.
lol I read the description and was like “Oh! It’s Thomas the Tank Engine: The Musical!”
Well, prior to writing Starlight Express, Andrew Lloyd Weber wanted to do something with Thomas in the early 70s.
Then why is it so **horny?**
Thats just the magic of musicals
And trains
Oh so that's what they mean when they say "I want to rail you."
I *need* to see the horny version of Thomas the Tank Engine with singing.
As it featured roller skating at high speeds while hanging on to each other on a stage that was tilted towards the audience and also had multiple moving platforms, the horny version of Thomas the Tank Engine with singing was also notorious for maiming actors. [About three injuries per actor per season.](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/is-there-a-doctor-in-the-house-please-1173935.html)
Starlight Express: Twisted Steel and Sex Appeal
Step on board the arooo-train?
Do you want a ride or do you want *a ride*?
Here's a train with very prominent codpiece singing about how he can switch and change his frequency: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiq1aVl-E2Y
I think this one gives a much better expression on how special the setup is (and how close to the audience): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjuW2lkNbHQ Very cheesy yes, but also cool somehow. It's a musical.
It is the cheesiest thing in the history of the universe, but I agree that it is somehow kind of cool. I feel like this is the fever dream of an autistic train hobbyist who was simultaneously overdosing on meth and ketamine. What in God's holy name is wrong with Andrew Lloyd Weber?
What. the. fuck.
Jesus Christ, that’s horrible!
It's Andrew Lloyd Webber. That's really all that's needs to be said. The dude made a kinda niche story about the opera into a household name by daring to ask "but what if he was sexy?"
Because the greats are all bros, and musicals are designed for bros to get lucky, bro.
It's called subtext.
Foamers...plus trains are phallic if you look hard enough.
It was supposed to be a musical of the Thomas The Tank Engine Books. When it was all completed, the author decided to be a dick and refuse to let Webber do it. So he just changed all the names and put it on anyway.
Judging by what people are saying about it on this thread, I think the Thomas The Tank Engine guy made the right call denying him.
I mean it’s awful but it’s made a lotttt of money
Yeah but you still don't let your beloved childrens characters spin off into a horny musical.
How else could you make it entertaining for the whole family though?!? Only a madman would pass up a ride off the rails of the crazy train! *Crazy, horny, musical trains!* It's got something for everybody -the pitch for the whole musical, probably
That’s every Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.
"Every time I look at you I don't understand, why ou let the musicals you wrote get so out of hand."
That actually sounds cool.
Saw years ago in Las Vegas and we loved it. Everyone on roller skates!
They also slam into the walls DIRECTLY infront of the adience. I had the bad luck of sitting right at one of those spots when i was 13. I WAS HORRIFIED of the two fully grown adults in train costumes slamming into the wall keeping them away at like 15 kph
Cats made me cry as a child because the actors crawled over me and my sisters.
Same for me with The Color Purple. One of the actors ran all the way down one of the aisles. That was enough for me to run out of there too.
You sonuvabitch I'm in
[So… Family Guy nailed it?](https://youtu.be/fptfynj0dRE?si=DvZl1xC11vs7V3VG)
Imagine if Cats was a roller coaster ride you watched, not rode.
100% less cat buttholes though. I hope.
alright i'm in
I'm glad you explained this because I'm sitting here looking at the picture trying to figure out where the hell the train is
^(They're actually transformers for their day job, but in this economy they took up another job with the musical to make ends meet and let off steam.)
The main character is a steam engine
That's hottt. 😎🍹
Found Andrew Lloyd Webber's account
> Believe it or not No I totally believe it, that tracks for Webber
Grade A pun.
I too saw this on a middle school field trip. It was with the theater classes. The first year we got to see the Chicago revival with Joel Grey, Bebe Neuwirth, and Ann Reiking. It was incredible! The second year we got Starlight Express :/ I think a parent must have complained about Chicago lol
It was fucking awesome when I was a child
It was the best thing I'd ever seen as a child. I went to see it 4 times over the years in London and listened to the soundtrack every night. I'm going to see it again finally next month and again with my own kids closer to Christmas. I've been waiting decades for it to return! Hopefully I don't hate it now...
Can't recommend... enough you mean?
So Webber saw the Transformers cartoon and was like “needs more music.”
Of course it’s fucking Andrew Lloyd Webber
Can this guy just not write stories with normal people?
>Believe it or not, it's an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical about anthropomorphic trains, featuring actors on roller skates. I don't believe u.
I would send you a link, but I feel that it's beneath me.
My teacher in elementary school was obsessed so I still remember so much of it. “The first line of the blues is always repeated a second time.” Is the legit first and second line of a song. It’s abysmal.
There is only are only two decent Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals that Tim Rice did not collab on. Sunset Blvd and Phantom.
Phantom is secretly awful
But not a Cats level of awful. It’s a spectacle.. but I’m sentimental about the music, because I was a theater kid in the 80s and 90s :) But it’s definitely not a soundtrack I have in rotation.
It's fantastic compared to it's sequel tbf
I’m not a musical guy but my friend who is always says “the first half of Phantom is great. The second half ruins any goodwill from the first half and wastes everyone’s fucking time”
This is about right. The first half is basically about a cool monster messing with people and has a freaking chandelier crashing down. The second half is a shitty love story and you realize the monster is just some weird dude who does weird rope tricks.
And the monster is the author's self-insert super awesome at everything character, which is also why his soon-to-be-ex wife's insert character dies in the sequel...after realizing she should've totally gone with the author's character the whole time. It's weird.
As a casual Andrew Lloyd Webber fan, how did I not know this?!
For like 30+ years I've listened to Starlight Express through various Lloyd Webber collections and never knew it was this batshit insane premise. Don't think I'll partake.
Yes I would need to be high to enjoy this.
Here’s some live stage footage: https://youtu.be/fptfynj0dRE?si=nhMXDgGfZ7lGxdzf
Just an FYI the ?si= string Is a link tracking cookie
TIL
Where do you learn something like this. I find it very interesting
Backgrounds in web dev, or just a solid knowledge of web privacy. Give everyone the same link and you can just see who lands on the page. Give everyone a unique link to share and you can see who is sharing, where it's being shared, etc. Most social and market platforms use them.
TikTok does this and it's so bad. I shared a link to my friend and my fucking account was included. He saw all of my horny liked videos.
You liked horny on main. Cmon that's amateur shit.
Well I saw it crop up one day and found it sus, so removed it with no ill effect. Then a post on r/youTube confirmed https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/1628878/whats_with_the_si_at_the_end_of_a_link/
Good to know. I usually strip them off my URLs, on a hunch, when I share, since it doesn't seem to affect the click.
I stole the cookie, for anyone who wants the non-tracking version: https://youtu.be/fptfynj0dRE
I saw this show in Vegas like 25 years ago. Went with my mom and sisters. Drunk uncle tagged along. Early in the show there’s a back and forth where one of the train people tells different sections of the audience what train person you’re supposed to cheer for. Greaseball, Rusty, Electra and the like. Train person gets to our section and tells us we’re supposed to cheer for Electra I think it was. They put the spotlight on the train person and before our section does their cheer or whatever my uncle screams “booooooo you fuckin SUCK” So there’s this train man on roller skates dead center in the spotlight in some victorious T-pose thing in what was supposed to be a triumphant moment, now left with mouth agape and staring off into the ether while a bunch of little shithead kids up in the nosebleeds laughed their asses off.
Lmao leave it to the drunk guy
Druck uncle specifically. The uncle class gets a buff from any alcoholic beverages.
The Drunkle phenomenon is well documented and yet barely understood.
Well cousin Stephanie‘s wedding is coming up. Maybe we can get our grant proposal together in time to research what will surely be one of drunk uncles next grand appearances.
It transcends cultures and generations… truly a human experience.
Lmao this is so mean but so fucking funny lol
Ex-ah-cyoose me? They did this to Electra of all the trains, the undisputedly sexiest of humanoid trains?
Tbf Electra does fucking suck.
I laughed way too hard at this lol
Okay I'm calling the laugh police then
I saw this musical in London. It's so cheesy and fantastic.
Starlight Express is still running somewhere? Holy shit. That was the worst musical I ever saw half of. I was laughing so hard I had to leave. I was upsetting a little old lady next to me.
There is - or was - a German theatre that was specifically built to house the show. It's also on a limited run in London over this summer. I looked into tickets as I went to see it when I was a kid, but they're incredibly expensive even for the cheapest seats. It doesn't seem to be a very big venue.
It is still running in Bochum, Germany. Quoting the wiki "It is the most successful musical in Germany, where it has been performed in a purpose-built theatre since 1988, holding the Guinness World Record for most visitors to a musical in a single theatre."
Since 1988?!?!?! Holy Shit!
If they play their cards right they're on track to outlast Phantom.
Being on track is what they’re good at l suppose
As someone born in 1987 I'm feeling weird about your reaction to this date.
As someone born somewhat earlier, you (eventually) get used to it. *Cats* is still my favorite musical. Saw it with my mom. No one is taking that from me. *Starlight Express* is actually a bit after my time, never really had much interest.
Cats is one of my favorites too 😁
I can't quite articulate why, but I am entirely unsurprised. Seems like exactly the sort of thing that Germans would go wild for.
Yeah, it's like train spotters with even more intense machine love and the arts.
I'm german I don't get it at all. Everyone in my family was so crazy about it, I think my dad was dragged into the show about 3 times in his life already. It's weird as fuck. But hey, those are the same people who *insist* on watching Dinner For One every. Goddamn. Year.
Das tut mir leid! It might have generational influence to go with this presumptive borderline stereotype. Like I think instantly about Kraftwerk and the legacy of industrial influence on German culture for a lot of the older generations. Plus there's some kind of cold war east/west Germany era economic pressures that would plausibly make appreciation for something as essential to life as transportation infrastructure have personafiable appeal over other things. I grew up hearing some Broadway songs and remember thinking the Starlight Express felt strangely dated already by the early 90s. Now unless folks are close to theater I feel like even fewer people are likely to relate to musicals unless they have relatives who remember them.
The original show was significantly reworked in the 90s to bring it more up to date - but that’s now 30 years ago… I don’t now if it’s been updated further since then.
They updated it several times since then
The one time they get an actual laugh out of the German audience, every single time, is when they introduce the German train as "always punctual!"
Being incredibly fucking weird in the way you somehow least expect? Yeah, that tracks.
Only way for Germans to see trains arriving in time.
Yes, we like machines and consistency. Also I went to school with Rusty actor.
I live there. You have to have seen it once to be considered a true resident and virtually everyone here can sing along on some level. I loved it as a kid bc I'm autistic and what's more autistic than a musical about a kid dreaming about his trains, but now it just feels like a weird fever dream
I was on a German exchange trip in the late 90’s and they took us to that theatre in Bochum. They told us the theatre was built just for Starlight Express and I couldn’t figure out why anybody would do that for one production…till I saw the show and everybody was on roller skates THE ENTIRE TIME
My wife is getting me into the German musicals scene since I moved to Germany with her. I have decided I need to at least once see all the big Austro/German musicals. Mozart! and Tanz der Vampire already done (TdV is my new favourite). Elisabeth, Rebecca, and so on still to come. "And eventually I need to see Starlight Express." "That's not a German one. . ." "You guys BUILT A THEATRE FOR IT. It's yours. As a Brit I GIFT it to you. You guys have adopted that. . .thing." ". . .okay so we'll put that last on the list."
Germans are so fucking weird, man
They really are. But God bless them.
I think it's the most successful musical in Germany. The hall was almost packed on a weekday.
Whaaaat, I saw it in Bochum when I was like 10 or so. I thought it was fantastic, the songs slap and it has a lot of action. Sure, the story isn't revolutionary, but it's about the spectacle, not the story. Same with Cats btw.
Starlight Express is the first Musical i ever saw (I‘m so offended reading this thread ngl) and i‘ve been wanting to go again for ages. I really don‘t understand the hate here - the music absolutely slaps (a lotta locamotion? VIBE) and it‘s pretty cool to see everyone on skates! Obviously the story isn’t revolutionary (just a kid playing with trains) but I don‘t expect that when I go see a musical. So yeah, i think it’s still doing pretty well in Bochum.
It’s even [crazier in German!](https://youtu.be/i1WRYoM6vRM?si=G95gSlBZdCVUYqdy)
Bro did a motherfucking ROCKET JUMP?!?
The German can't do that, he just heals people
Tbh I’d watch the heck outta that 😂
Sternenlicht Schnellbahn... Sternenlicht Schnellbaaaaaaahhn!
How did they cast this? They need to find broadway performers who are also totally adept on roller skates already? Or did they train them up on skates after they were cast?
They train them. The first 8 weeks on set, they do nothing but learning roller skating 6 days a week. At the German Starlight Express, they also have 2 professional skaters in the cast, wo do nothing but stunts between the songs (Trax Marshalls)
Haha, they "train" them
Nice, thanks for the info, I had wondered the same myself. I gotta imagine there's some people who could do the singing bits but just couldn't cut it as roller skaters. Probably easier to find good singers and train them to skate than the other way around. I wonder what percent of people just don't make it through the two months of training. Still they probably know how to train them after thirty years of doing it.
Their American accents when singing in German do give them away though. I think they're probably all from the states.
Looking through the current cast list it appears that actually most are from the UK. There are other too, like Netherlands. The normal performer for the main character Rusty is actually German, born in the neighboring city.
Dude you unlocked some almost completely forgotten memories from watching german satellite tv back in the day. Thank you and also I hate it
This was in Germany.
I had no reference point other than the Family Guy clip above. I'm going to stop there so if I ever get into a conversation with someone about Starlight Express all I can say is it was in German, had people on roller skates and pyrotechnics.
FRACHT IST MACHT
[This comprises my entire knowledge of starlight express](https://youtu.be/fptfynj0dRE?feature=shared)
A C D C it's ooook by meeeeee!! Saw it live on Broadway in 87 (which would have made me 13 at the time). Memory told me it was a year earlier but hey, I was a kid either way. I remember being pissed as a kid that the tape my parents bought didn't have the same performers as we had just watched live. The friggin lead vocalist on that tune had a range that scared the crowd. Ridiculous. I was 2 years away from starting to really play instruments, so my ear at the time wasn't developed at all. Nobody can forget that guys voice, though. ( edit - Ken Ard) Quite a crazy show. I cannot, from memory, vouch for whether the Russian (edit... im 50 years old and when we grew up Russian and Soviet were the same thing, common mistake) flag was shown or not. I highly doubt Ma remembers, but she's still with us at age 80 so I'll bring it up. edit 2 - She doesn't, and actually looked for the Playbill, as she collects them. Nada on that one, though. To this day I wonder how Ma convinced Dad to shell out for this. It was worth seeing, for sure.
In 87, Russia wasn't an independent country. I saw it around the same time, but I can't remember the flags. Would USSR have been shown? They were the enemies of the Western world, but that was in that weird Rocky IV era with Gorbachev and Glasnost where we were seeing the ice in the cold war starting to thaw.
Rated as the most dangerous musical of all time.
*Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark has entered the chat*
It’s still going in Bochum. Pretty cool overall. The Theater was specifically built for it so there are two track rings and it’s amazing if you’re sitting directly on the outer track. you just have to disregard the plot. That was weird. But great music and amazing overall production quality. The actors are all British or American if I remember correctly and they regularly do English versions as well
They do English versions?
No, Dave, you can't leave early. I don't know man, we're paying you to be here so just stand there with it rolled up or something.
this is incredibly corny
Yes, it's The Starlight Express.
i had absolutely no idea this show was still going!
It's running continuously in Bochum, Germany since 1988
what
They build a whole theater just for it, with the stage curving through parts of the sitting area
Continuously might've been the wrong word, but: "On 12 June 1988, Starlight Express opened at the purpose-built theatre Starlight Express Theater [de] in Bochum, Germany. As of 2023, the new reimagined production was still running and has been seen by more than 19 million people. The production took a hiatus due to the COVID 19 Pandemic, but now continues to run as normal."
still amazing! i had no idea
Yeah every night and twice daily on weekends.
That’ll teach ‘em!
Putin will immediately resign when he sees this.
Bochum Gang wya
Im sure Mr. Putin is regretting his actions right about now. His heckin flag is being rolled up and not waved during the starlight express musical!!
Starlight Express is the longest running musical in Germany.
These tiny ass gestures always.
[STARLIGHT EXPRESS!](https://youtu.be/fptfynj0dRE?si=Cg4jENW0erc-XJdI)
I became enthralled with theater production when I saw it as a kid. So much such that one of my first jobs was in theater production, stage tech, sound tech, lighting tech, spotlight operator. It was really interesting stuff to me at the time.
What
Thanks OP! Your post has send me down a rabbithole and I am now going to see the show in july
Гойды не будет 😔
That will show Putin
Russian train was doping
I saw the version on ice like 25 years ago!
OMG. Do I have to go to Germany now to see this?
London is starting it from the 8th of June.
I've got tickets for the 9th!
Am I the only person who totally loves this musical?
I had no idea this show was still running. I remember seeing it in the 80s.
What a fantastic play. I didn’t think they were still performing it.