There's good, damn good, and then there's....

....Starlight Express. Amongst my plethora of hobbies and interests, Starlight Express stands out like, well, a star! And I totally miss it.

You don't just go and SEE it, you experience it.

Totally different from anything you have ever seen before, for all the actors are on roller skates. The actors are trains, or the carriages of trains, and they have races around the whole theatre, even on the balcony!

I saw it 22 times before we left London, but that still wasn't enough.

Although closed now (since Jan 2001) the musical remains an everlasting memory. Hey! I have seen a lot of Lord Lloyd-Webber's musicals, and a lot more others, but this one stands out as UNIQUE. I can only describe it as a disco with speed (and I don't mean the amphetamine variety).

Just to have up to thirty roller-skating mad-persons passing by your seat so close as to give you a breeze and a whiff of the carbon dioxide is intoxicating enough, but there is actually a plot in there as well as the award-winning lighting, the action, the singing, innuendoes and the dancing! The staff are very helpful, too, because if you are old and cannot whip your head around to watch the trains as they go all around the theater, giant video screens unfold so you can watch the dirty dealings of the current champion in real time, as he (Greaseball, the Diesel) gets Zapped by the New Pretender, Electra (the Electric Train), all to a heart-thumping musical soundtrack (live music!), plus a commentator, who relates all the action for those who are too dumb to watch anything.

But it all is down to Rusty, the clapped-out steam train, to win the day. Rusty, Poppa (his Dad), and Dustin (the aggregate hopper) finally prove that it is not only abilities that make you a great train (or even person), but it is the belief in YOURSELF that contributes the greater part of it. Halfway through, Rusty calls on the "Starlight Express" to help him after being beaten up by the Greaseball Gang, only to realise that the Starlight Express is ~! ~! YOU, and ONLY YOU.

Cue for the song "I am the STARLIGHT", the turning point of the whole show.

Rusty realises that it is self-belief that powers a person, not some mystical "force" called "Starlight Express", and with that, and the gravel-carriage, Dustin, goes ahead to challenge both Greasball and Electra in the final race. Rusty is above both engines' tendency to bend the rules, and evades both to become the new champion, thus getting the girl (Pearl, the Observation Car, his heart-throb since Day One), and
"winning the day".

I owe this post to a new person I met recently, whose name is actually "Dustin". Just so you'd know, Dustin! You'll find me pretty quick -- -- Downhill !!