Why Starlight Express Continues To Shine So Bright

A musical based around trains within a child’s dreamscape is a hard concept to explain to those who have not previously climbed aboard the Starlight Express. so, we have prepared this handy little guide…

This high-octane show has it all: immersing audiences inside a world of speed, and we are here tell you what Starlight Express is all about. All aboard? Then, let’s go!

This show is set in a dream

The setting of Starlight Express is a child’s bedroom, with ‘Control’, being tucked into a warm bed and told to go to sleep. Control is a child and, as the show unfolds, we follow Control’s beloved toy trains as they race one starlight-filled night.  

Is it a literal dream, that takes place inside Control’s sleeping brain? Or is it an active acting out of a child’s rich inner monologue, involving Trains, carriages, uncoupling's and races? Whatever your interpretation, Starlight Express is a magical celebration of a child’s imagination.

This dream requires steam

In the 1800s, steam trains were the go-to mode of locomotive transportation. Such trains were gradually replaced by electric and diesel engines, and as today’s rail industry seeks out more efficient and environmentally friendly fuel sources, it's "...a matter of if, not a matter of when”, the current titans of transport will be replaced by hydrogen-fueled trains.

Hydra the hydrogen fuel truck is the most recent arrival, having recently pulled up to the current London production to join Greaseball the Diesel Engine, Electra the Electric Engine, and star of the show: the Steam Engine, Rusty. He might not be the fastest, nor the newest train on the track, but Rusty gives Starlight Express its heart. Hydrogen might be the fuel of the future, but you’ll be rooting for this little steam engine.  

Yes, there are wheels

Incredibly, Starlight Express is performed entirely on roller skates, with just the human characters of Control and, briefly, Control’s mother.

In the 40+ years Starlight Express has been running, its staging has always been as impressive as it has been challenging

The theatres, both at the London production, based in Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, and the Starlight Express Theater in Bochum have been specially constructed to allow the actors to skate around the audience, enabling the races to be high octane, and high-speed, which requires the actors to be confident skaters whilst also able to sing!  

It's not just a set, it’s a racetrack, making it as much of a character as Rusty himself.

Rehearsing for this show is rigorous! London’s Skate School is led by Skate Coordinator Luke Zammit, who previously worked on the Bochum production and trained with Starlight’s original skating coach Michal Fraley. Michal worked very closely with the show’s renowned original choreographer and Creative Dramaturg, the iconic Arlene Philips, to hone the many skills a Starlight performer requires to dance on skates.

The costumes are unreal

It’s not just the roller skates that make these trains race ready. Just like the Starlight Express set, the actors’ costumes are as much a part of the spectacle as the characters themselves.  

A glorious blend of steampunk, science fiction and the show’s original 80s kitsch, the Starlight look has evolved over the years but is still holds true to its original vision: to look like trains whilst also giving each character space to explore the real human emotions at the heart of Starlight Express. And so, we have Rusty, whose red outfit routinely billows out steam to accompany his whistle, and the electrifying Electra, whose inflatable lightning bolt costume gives their standout song an extra dose of camp. These trains may get race-tired, but their costumes, designed by Gabriella Slade shine like, well, starlight.

It’s an express train of a show.

Starlight Express first opened at the Apollo Victoria Theatre back in 1984. 40 years after its original West End debut, a new London production arrived at the specially designed Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in 2024.  

It is, however, the German production of Starlight Express, which opened in 1988 that has performed for the last 38 years in a specially built Starlight theatre in the city of Bochum. The theatre holds the Guinness World Record for the most visitors to a musical in a single theatre, and in January 2025, welcomed its 19,000,000-audience member to the show.

For any train, that’s quite the journey, and it’s a journey many people in the audiences may also have been on time, and time again.

Starlight Express fans returning to see the new London production as adults should prepare for a nostalgia-filled return trip to childhood. It’s a riot of colour and noise. It’s a celebration of creativity and imagination and gives audiences the opportunity to soak up all the wonder of being young, no matter how old you are.  

Starlight Express are you real? Yes or No? ...We like to think yes.  

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