Fans were chuffed to see their favourite choo choo musical, Starlight Express, when it opened at Milton Keynes Theatre this week.
It’s a tremendous family show that will enthral youngsters. The high energy production is packed with flashing lights, special effects, lots of roller skating and trick moves.
I’m sure that the Rev Wilbert Awdry wished he’s had the imagination to set Thomas The Tank Engine to music but he was pipped to the stage by Andrew Lloyd Webber who hit on the idea of putting the locomotions on roller skates. It was like seeing Thomas and co on speed.
What he and lyricist Richard Stilgoe came up with was a story about an Olympic-style race between steam trains and a new space age electric train. Among all the bells and whistles was a rusty old wreck of a train who dreamed of beating the favourites and winning the love of his favourite carriage.
Now if you were lucky enough to see earlier productions of the show it would have featured a skating track through the auditorium which was used by the skaters to stage the races. It was thrilling stuff, made more exciting by the possibility of watching a high speed collision or someone come off the track.
Now I’m sure that the producers aren’t being cheapskates but they’ve cut down on building-time by forgoing the fancy stage and opting for moments of crude, elementary 3-D film which show the races.
If you like wearing the silly 3-D glasses and having images project out into your face then you’ll enjoy the update.
The skaters – particularly Mykal Rand as Electra and Jamie Capewell as Greaseball – were spectacular; The hip hopper “trains” (Robert Nurse,Lex Milczarek and Ben Harrold) were athletic; the dancing, choreographed by the great Arlene Phillips, absolutely dazzling, and Rusty the wreck (Kristofer Harding) stole everyone’s hearts with his singing.
There were a couple of minor collisions in the sidings but overall the skaters spun and jumped to perfection.
But, at the end of the day, a predominantly adult audience were sitting watching a story about trains falling in love and winning races.
More than seven million people saw the original London production and about 24m worldwide; it has won countless awards and has toured the world to sell out audiences so perhaps I’m missing something. It really is great family fare but not really for anyone over 15 (unless trains and skating are your thing).
Starlight Express is noisy, colourful, high-tech electric, and running until May 4. Make tracks to see it.
For tickets call the box office 0844 871 7652 or go online www.atgtickets.com/miltonkeynes