COMING up for its 30th year since musical inception, Andrew Lloyd Webber's tale of rivalry and redemption has had to evolve quite a few times to retain relevance with its audience.
The original tracks, therefore, tend to stick out as 1980s relics due to the juxtaposition with the (also now dated) rapping which must have been added in the 1990s restaging.
To bring it up to the 2000s, 3D film was added and although this has been further updated for the current touring production (which started out at the Wimbledon New Theatre in May), this footage is more Power Rangers than a happy bedfellow with some Power Ballads. That's not to say that children will not enjoy this facet, and it's quite apt really as the Starlight Express story was written as a Cinderella-esque train fable for Lloyd Webber's own kids, with a view towards an animated movie.
Please enable cookies in your browser to display the rest of this article.