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Hey folks I was just wondering if anyone here goes to the theater much. I just went and saw Andrew Lloyd Webbers Starlight Express. I thought the story line was a bit dumb but the acting was good. The star a young man named Franklyn Warfield had a beautiful singing voice even if the song was lame. And the young man who played the red caboose Jeremy Kocal from Southern California had such an infectious smile you had to smile every time he was on stage. Has anyone else seen this play? If so what did you think of it.
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We saw Ibsen's The Master Builder, I got to see Patrick Stewart in the flesh and he's really got a huuuge.................stage presence!
Whaaaat? Didja think I was going to say something else?! 
I loved the sets they'd built for that play, they were almost surreal in their simplicity and bleak colors, but that only served to make me focus even more on the actors (which was the inteintion I guess). I still looked lots at the sets too, because they were so fascinating. They were built to make a fairly small stage seem rather big, and the angles seemed a bit odd like they used forced perspective, though that really only works with photography... Anyway, very impressive. Acting by all members of the cast was very good. The play itself wasn't maybe super original by today's standards. Might have been by the time it was written, but the theme has been used many times before (well, after, really, but you know what I mean I hope!  ), in TV and movies. Still, I really liked it.
A big difference from the silver screen, that's for sure!
-L
"But he that hath the steerage of my course,
direct my sail."
-William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act One, Scene IV
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smith
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On fire! |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 1095
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I haven't seen that play but I have seen 'Cats' and 'Phantom of the Opera'. I really liked Phantom.....
oh and is it okay to say I've seen 'Riverdance'? Man, all that stompin's gotta be hard on the legs and that guy that flings himself all around....well, he's just so.....hahaha ::-)
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i saw riverdance also. did not make much sense all that jumping around with no plot or story to speak of. i did love cats. i bet it is even better when it is on a large stage like boardway. i go to the theater every month and see what is in town. i am always amazed at the singing that those people can do. i never thought to go to the theater until i moved to a city that had one. now i get the season pass so that i do not miss a show.
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Guest
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On fire! |
Registered: March 2012
Messages: 2344
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... for a very long time; found in one incarnation or another since the mid-1970's.
I attended the original production of "Starlight Express" (it premiered on Broadway to much fanfare and hooplah, and disasterous reviews) just days before it closed after an extremely short run (much shorter even than the original production of "Whistle Down The Wind", some 10-years later, which itself first opened in Washington D.C. of all places) and found the entire proceeding to be mildly amusing, but the story-line far too convoluted for my taste.
Starlight Express was the second, or third, collaboration (if I recall correctly) between Webber and Rice, with the Book and Music having been written long before either had undertaken Catz and Evita, with the original draft writing having taken place just after their success with Jesus Christ Superstar.
It is my understanding that much has been trimmed from the show's production over the years, with only the Overture and two or three other numbers having actually survived the cut.
Like the later American theatre disaster "Whistle Down The Wind", Starlight Express, once having been reworked to a sufficient degree, opened to considerable success in London's West-end; but only after nearly 10-years had passed.
Warren
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Starlight Express ran in London's West End from 27 March 1984 to 12 January 2002 making an almost 18 year run. It is second only to Cats as the longest running musical in British theatre history. In November 1992 the show was re-directed, re-choreographed, re-lit and the set was refurbished.
I believe that it continues to play in Bochum, Germany and that there are plans for a film and UK Tour.
I went to see it in its first incarnation and found it entertaining as a spectacle, although not particularly memorable.
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Theater Anyone 
My friend Nick took me to the theater when I visited... 
