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/

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.

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

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

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.

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

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!

^ Ooh, there was a fire?

Could you tell me more please?

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.

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?

That's terrible! I never realised there was a fire at one of the RUG warehouses.

Was it covered in the press?

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