[enkeli-kitten]

I'm so excited!!!! Starlight Express is going to tour NZ next year....and it's coming to Christchurch!! *bounces* I thought I'd never get to see it because it's so expenisve and NZ is so small!! ^^;

The auditons are still open, but it's looking very competitive, they're basically saying don't even bother unless you have an agent ^^ Oh well!!! I am very happy to watch this one. Check the website and flashy video:

http://www.starlightexpressnz.com/

[Belle]

They're using the UK tour set, which is quite small, with the 3D filmed races. hopefully they'll re-make those godawful costumes, they must be worn out beyond use by now!

It'll be very interesting to see who ends up in the cast for this production. There's been quite a few Kiwis in the German production over the years, Kapa Kitchen is probably the best known. Will they be paying enough ton interest the experienced, older performers who know the show inside out, or will it be made up of young, cheap recent graduates?

The site only suggests there's about 5-6 weeks of performances. Surely they won't be able to turn a profit from just three tour stops - they must go on to other cities, Australia, south Asia - just to make the money! But then, surely they'd be telling the agents about it? It's all quite intriguing. Can't wait to see what they do with it.

[Mungojerrie_rt]

Please be touring Australia! I really want to see it. I don't think it's been here since 1987!

[Mazz]

Sounds about right. If only they'd do an '87 size tour again...

[wicked_boy]

Looks good.

I saw the first UK tour. That was fun. Not as good as I imagine London, but it's worthseeing if you get the chance.

[Mazz]

Yeah, it's a good bite-sized production.

[enkeli-kitten]

Well, the audition info only lists Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, I assume they'd tell the agents if more performances were scheduled!! I agree that it's strange, for such a high budget performance, but CATS did surprisingly well last year with every show sold out in Christchurch at least, so perhaps they're hoping for another run like that!

As for the cast, I'm also hoping for some bigger names, but here in Chch we have the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Art, which offers (supposedly) the only 3-year musical theatre degree available in the southern hemisphere, and the standard of recent graduates is pretty high!

[wicked_boy]

^ Ooh, there was a fire?

Could you tell me more please?

[Belle]

There was an enormous warehouse fire. I can't remember the exact details, but it was something like 1996, 1997... RUG warehouse, with the stored set and properties for Sunset Blvd, the Arena tour set for Starlight Express, all their costumes etc, a lot of the old London Starlight costumes were stored there, a whole lot of other stuff too... I want to say it was on the south coast, Brighton area.

Can someone with a better memory fill in the details? It was mostly known for the Sunset Blvd set being destroyed.

[Aella]

And they use No Comeback in the video? If I was going there to watch the show for the first I'd be very dissapointed when I realized that "the cool music on the website" wasn't there!

When was it cut anyway? Did it make all the way to the 90s?

[wicked_boy]

[Belle]

Yeah, I have very vague recollections of it making headlines. It was a huge story - but about 12 years ago.

[wicked_boy]

***Googling.***

[Mungojerrie_rt]

[Belle]

You hear "No Comeback" through the show, the melody is used to represent Electra or the components in the race music, it's used by Electra and Pearl in "Laughing Stock", but you never hear the actual song!

I need to check references when it was cut (I've got programmes with the song lists from almost every year of London) but I think it was about 1988/89, something like that... definitely before the 1992 revamp.

[Mr. Dern]

I hope the rumours are true and this does actually come to Australia too. I've been wanting to see Starlight for over ten years now

[mattdevil]

...

[Mungojerrie_rt]

The cast has been released on the website.

Rusty - Jamie Golding
Electra - Mykal Rand
Greasball - Matthew Cutts
Poppa - Lothair Eaton

Pearl - Rebecca Wright
Dinah - Torum Heng
Buffy - Camilla Hardy
Ashley - Sarah Landy

Hip Hoppers (Poor Rockies)
Aaron Piper
Sharn Te Pou
Joel Hewlett

Caboose - Kyle Chuen
Dustin - Jason Chasland
Flat-top - Jared Pallesen

Nintendo - Clayton Curnow
Ruhrgold - Jos Hoetjes
Turnov - Philip Gurney
Prince of Wales - Robert Enari

Trax 1 - Matt King
Trax 2 - tba

Purse - Ben Nichols
Joule - Melanie Firbank
Volta - Olivia Wakem
Wrench - Hannah Kee

Swings
Matthew Pike
Andrew Millar
Lee Lomas
Graha Harvey
Claire Stanley
Georgia Bergerson

[kiwiholly]

Awesome! This sounds like it should be good! Yay for NZ.

[Mungojerrie_rt]

I'm begining to not care if it tours Australia now actually. The song list makes me despair. It's like a highlights recording missing all of the best songs.

[Belle]

Unfortunately, that's what Lloyd Webber has decided the show should be! Star-lite - the low calorie version.

[Mungojerrie_rt]

Heh, that gave me an idea:

[Belle]

LOL! It's sad, but true... Not that the show isn't entertaining, and I have no doubt that the NZ cast will give it 120%, but the raw material's just somewhat lacking compared to what it can - what it SHOULD - be.

[Mumsytype]

[Mungojerrie_rt]

If you want.

I got lazy and used the ones already on black backgrounds so that I didn't have to cut the characters out carefully. Although somehow the lazy approach seems appropriate.

[Mazz]

Very much so. You've already put more effort into that poster than they did on the official ones.

[kiwitechgirl]

I'll be buying a ticket to the Christchurch leg of the NZ tour this week, so come July I'll post a review here! I'm not the biggest fan in the world of the show, but I know half the cast so kinda have to go and see it! What I can say is that there are some great talents in the cast - the lead swing, Matt Pike, is currently rehearsing The Engineer in the production of Miss Saigon that I'm ASMing, and he's fantastic, completely magnetic on stage; I've worked with Dinah, Caboose, Ruhrgold and Prince of Wales as well and they've all got big futures ahead of them - very talented kids!

[Mungojerrie_rt]

Very good Pearl. I love how her accent dissapears when she starts singing.

http://www.reallyuseful.com/shows/starlight-express/gallery/video

Different version to the Australian and Bochum recodings.

[kiwitechgirl]

I've just got home from the show, so some thoughts....I should add that I'm not familiar with the show in any of its versions, so can only judge it on what I saw.
- Production values are top-notch, my only complaint would be some decidedly average followspotting. Lighting and sound were excellent.
- All the "imported" lead cast members were great - Rusty, Greaseball, Poppa, Caboose (the NZ Caboose had a bad fall near the end of rehearsals and is out for the season, which is a shame). I didn't see Mykal Rand as Electra; Matt Pike, the lead swing, was on, which I was actually really pleased about as I know him, have worked with him and deliberately went to a matinee in the hope he'd be on. He was fantastic - the three guys doing "One Rock and Roll Too Many" was the highlight of the show for me.
- The Kiwi cast certainly held their own. Pearl was a bit pitchy in the first half but definitely came right in the second half and has a lovely voice; Dinah, Ashley and Buffy were all excellent and the supporting cast were very strong.
- The band was very, very tight - by the sounds of it there are some tricky bits in the score but they were great.
- I was a bit disappointed that the races were filmed, but it makes total sense - the venues the show is touring to are quite differently shaped and so having the tracks would have been pretty complicated. I do have to say that the films did look a bit like a video game in a couple of places....think maybe they could have done better there.

So, overall verdict is that it was an excellent production of a show which I think is decidedly average!!

[Mungojerrie_rt]

Who was the imported Caboose?

[Belle]

Duane McGregor - formerly of the Bochum production - is playing Caboose, and Gavin Ashbarry (both Bochum and UK tour) is now Dustin.