‘There’s a Light at The End of the Tunnel’ Starlight Express – Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, London 24.1.2025
When this group outing came through on my work emails, I was not going to say no! Even it did mean we would be waiting nearly 9 months to go, the deal was too good not to take up and when we took our seat in the Starlight aerodrome, I knew I made the right choice – especially for theatre!
If you hadn’t guest yet, Starlight Express was tonight’s viewing, the classic Andrew Lloyd Webbers musical has returned to London after 22 years. It focuses on the story of a young but obsolete steam engine, Rusty, who races in a championship against modern locomotives of Greaseball, Diesel run and Eleckra, Electric engine. All in the hope of impressing a first-class observation cart, Pearl. I bet your thinking what I thought when I first heard of this musical, it’s about trains…and the cast play the trains. How? All performers are on roller-skates, GENIUS! That was really the most of what I knew about the show, having not listened to any of its music not fully knowing the story, it was completely new to me which made this viewing very enjoyable.
There is no denying that this musical is visually stunning and immersive from the get go, with half the audience merged into the race circuit – you are literally not allowed to leave your seat when the show starts except from the interval. The race track weaves in and out and throughout the cast are flying past, and breaking the 4th wall. The story itself, like many Andrew Lloyd Webbers can be a bit difficult to follow if you don’t have the main storyline with so many characters being thrown in and telling their story – similar to that of Cats each train has their moment to tell their story and character to the audience. You can also see, many similarities to the music that reminded me of Jesus Christ Superstar, and Joseph ,sung throughout, the different styles of the music such as rock, and then a bit country is very much like Joseph and when Greaseball and Slick are conspiring, its similar to the confrontation scenes in Jesus. Which does make sense and these musicals did congregate around the same time. The songs themselves, are all great fun and it is now a regular on my Spotify they are easy to listen to and heighten your mood reminding me of an excellent night of viewing.
However, with the revival there has been a few updates, such as the introduction of character Hydra, a hydrogen Truck car and the role of Greaseball and slick are now played by a women and Papa is now Mama. But then there is also Coach Tassita now being portrayed as a boy. I would have been nice to be able to review the changes but as a set of new eyes, it was great to see them bring something forward to today times.
The cast tonight was full of understudies and swings which was great to see, as its because of them the show can go on and times! But also, a great chance to see them in action that others may not get to. We also of course had a few leads in their skates, which was also a delight to see were all professional debuts. Jeevan Braich was in the role of young steam engine Rusty, he has a power ballad voice which was excellently shown through his any solo’s, especially the classic Starlight Express. He was an instant like to the audience and im sure a favourite train for all and you can see as to why Pearl, Kayna Montcillo finally chooses him! Kayna also was a cute and innocent first class gal, who showed off her many talents and skills on stage, her duet But I Do was beautiful done and her and Jeevan were perfectly coupled and had great chemistry on stage. Her two other train desires were Tom Pigram as Electra and Al Knott as Greaseball. Tom has the sass and Lady Gaga presence for the new take on Eleckra which gave him a full upgrade to his electric ways and Al was girl power throughout to show not all diseals have to be a man and a girl can do it too! Her song ‘Pumping Iron’ was a personal favourite of mine and her voice blew everyone out of the arena.
The coaches, Dinah (Eve Humphrey), Belle (Ashlyn Weekes) and Tassita (Charles Butcher – Swing) were excellent parts for the story, helping it carry throughout but having a few situations themselves such as Dinah’s love for Greaseball and her brilliant rendition of Uncoupled had the audience chuckling. They brought a bit of life and comic value to the show and the trio worked very well together. In the wheels of the trucks were Hydra (David Peter-Brown – cover), Porter (Lewis Kidd – cover) Lumber ( Jamie Cruttenden – cover) and Slick (Emily Martinez) all of which had the slick moves and skills for each.
Accompanying them all was an amazing ensemble that not only looked good, but blew their talent out the park – it is crazy to know that the lots of these cast members had not worn or skated before and the outcome of a 2 week boot camp is clear to see just how talented this cast is and brought their talents into a new perspective.
Having just announced an extension, Starlight Express continues to play at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre until October 2025 for all ticket information head here. Although, ticket prices can vary its good to point out that TodayTix offer £30 on the day rush tickets – which I have just unlocked as I would love to catch the show an see if I can see some new cast members in the roles and see their take on the characters. But I highly recommend catching this classic on stage if you can, even makes me want to try roller-skating!
