Starlight Express | |
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![]() Logo for the Japan/Australia tour, 1987–1988 | |
Music | Andrew Lloyd Webber Alastair Lloyd Webber (additional music) |
Lyrics | Richard Stilgoe Lauren Aquilina (additional lyrics) Don Black (additional lyrics) Nick Coler (additional lyrics) David Yazbek (additional lyrics) |
Productions | 1984 West End 1987 Broadway 1987 Australasia Tour 1988 Bochum 1989 US Tour 1993 Las Vegas 1997 Mexico City 2003 2nd US Tour 2004 UK Tour 2009 New Zealand Tour 2012 2nd UK Tour 2013 Asia Tour 2013 Johannesburg 2013 Tuacahn 2017 UK Workshop 2024 West End revival |
Starlight Express is a 1984 musical, with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Richard Stilgoe.[1] It tells the story of a young but obsolete steam engine, Rusty, who races in a championship against modern locomotives of diesel and electric engines in the hope of impressing a first-class observation car, Pearl. Famously, the actors perform on roller skates.[2][3]
Running for 7,409 performances in London, Starlight Express is the ninth-longest-running West End show. It is the most successful musical in Germany, where it has been performed in a purpose-built theatre since 1988, holding the Guinness World Record for most visitors to a musical in a single theatre.[4]