Starlight Express – Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, London

Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber

Lyrics: Richard Stilgoe

Director: Luke Sheppard

In 1984, when at his creative peak, Andrew Lloyd Webber may have been entitled to feel that he could walk on water or, perhaps even skate on wheels. So, could he craft a hit musical out of a story in which all the characters are trains and their carriages? Well, that show, Starlight Express, ran for almost 18 years at London’s Apollo Victoria Theatre, but the logistical problems involved in converting a conventional auditorium into a skating arena could have hindered plans to get it back on track. Until now. 

The Troubadour is a character-less, purely functional structure in the shadow of the Wembley Arch. It needs a big splash of starlight to offset its drabness and that is exactly what it gets, together with every other conceivable form of light. At first sight, the set (designer Tim Hatley), which includes “tracks” running through the audience, looks as if it could have cost almost as much as HS2 to construct and a company of 40 fills it with vibrant energy and colour.

The show serves as a reminder that, before being lured into musical theatre, Lloyd Webber’s roots lay in 1970s concept albums. Around 20 entirely separate songs, sometimes in very different styles, are strung together without any linking dialogue, leaving Richard Stilgoe’s delightfully tongue-in-cheek lyrics to do the storytelling work. In a vain attempt to attach some logic to the nonsense that unfolds, the narrative is encased within the dream of a small child.

In an era of transition for the railways, dilapidated old steam locomotive Rusty (Jeevan Braich) is competing with diesel engine Greaseball (Al Knott) and electricity-powered Electra (Tom Pigram) for supremacy and the right to pull (literally) first-class carriages Pearl (Kayna Montecillo) and dining car Dinah (Eve Humphrey). Their rivalry culminates in a race at breakneck speed around the stage and auditorium. Guessing that Lloyd Webber and Stilgoe could possibly be sentimentalists, it is not difficult to predict the winner.

Predominantly, the music is loud and proud rock. On press night, Green Day were performing at the neighbouring stadium and there were many moments when it might have been possible to wander between the two shows without hearing much difference. However, the writers also throw in some blues (sung gloriously by Jade Marvin), gospel and, with Uncoupled, a neat parody of Tammy Wynette’s D-I-V-O-R-C-E, a dash of country and western.

Director Luke Sheppard has assembled not so much a team as an army to put all this together. Original choreographer Arlene Phillips is back on board, credited as creative dramaturg, leaving it to new choreographer Ashley Nottingham to bring order to the hordes of skaters. Gabriella Slade’s imaginative costume designs dazzle when viewed under breathtaking lighting, designed by Howard Hudson,

This extravagant revival should appeal to all ages. It offers a feast for the eye and ear and, if there is less nourishment for the brain, who’s complaining?

Currently booking until 15 February 2025