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VIPs Only please!

The main foyer was very busy indeed, with children running around in their best dresses and enough excitement to suggest they could quite possibly explode, older couples getting their bottles of water at the sweets stand, people buying programmes and collecting tickets. The VIPs arrived in a pink limousine, and the chauffeur rolled out the red carpet. Everyone was getting their camera phones ready and as the doors opened (a tense moment) the VIPs were revealed… Bursting out was a loud, screaming party of young girls celebrating possibly a 12th birthday!

3D Goggles?

As people were asked to make their way to their seats, we were all given a pair of 3D goggles? 3D goggles? Yep, that's what I thought! I'll explain later.

"In Starlight they have to do this on roller skates, which requires strength, stamina and grim determination," says choreographer Arlene Phillips.

As the curtains opened the first thing that I noticed was the make-up, it was amazing! The costume was very 80s, it was almost like watching a brat pack film and I kept expecting Emilio Estevez to jump out!

Starlight Express is a story about a skating race, where the competitors are run by different types of energy (electricity, steam etc), and everyone is trying to win so they can get the best-looking-girl. But, just as the race is about to start, a new contestant arrives. Electra, who happens to be run by electricity, is played by the talented Mykal Rand who is also the resident director (a busy man!.)

Electra defiantly stole the show for me - he has a massive presence on the stage and his costume and make-up are fantastic. With a voice that could break glass he descends on the stage from the ceiling with a massive red and blue Mohican, spinning on his skates so fast my eyes couldn't keep up with him.

Cheesy or clever?

No wonder than that when each race was about to start, the audience were asked to put on their safety goggles - the ones that I was talking about earlier. This way you could watch the races in a 3D film which was projected on a screen that covered the stage.

I'm still not sure whether this method of 'adding another dimension' to this piece of theatre was super cheesy or a clever way to get over the hurdle of putting a fast moving race onto the stage. I'm still undecided!

The Starlight carriage girls Pearl, Dinah, Buffy and Ashley worked really well together with harmonies in 'A Whole Lotta Locomotion' that sounded like a smooth steam train.
In the end it was the underdog Rusty, powered by steam who won the race and the girl, which was, of course, inevitable right from the beginning.

Take the kids!

I wouldn't say Starlight Express was the best musical I have ever seen, but I do think it was a really good show. It's a piece which was made for the audience to have fun and it's definitely for a younger audience. I'm sure the girls who arrived in the pink limousine will have loved the show!

Starlight Express is running at the Bradford Alhambra until Saturday 8th September. So, if you have bored children to entertain before the summer holidays end, I would recommend going to see Starlight Express!