2021
STARLIGHT EXPRESS
The fifth 24 Hour Musical Project was held 10 - 11 April 2021
10 April 6pm
With face-masks adorned, the Project is back, and the shortlist has come down to the ultimate Andrew Lloyd Webber showdown… Starlight Express vs Cats!
What time is it? IT’S RACE TIME!! We reveal that trains are a go, reveal our graffiti covered set to the Company, and start on 12 hours of music calls for our first SUNG-THROUGH project.
there’s a light...
The biggest challenge this show threw at us was the enormous amount of music and choreography, and fitting it all in to the rehearsal schedule was a tight squeeze (to say the least). A small mishap with costuming caused another tight squeeze the team spent fixing all through the night, but eventually the sun rose on a show starting to take shape.
Sure, we were still teaching music, still sewing costumes, still learning blocking and dances, and hardly anyone had slept at all, but spirits were high and by the time we got to the stumble-through… we were still teaching music, sewing costumes and learning dances!
And then somehow, the final rehearsal was done and everyone was ready to go, and FOR A CHANGE, we were all waiting for the audience to get in to start!
11 April 6pm
The cast is on stage, there’s a harmonica warbling from our Poppa, and an audience of more than 800 fills the theatre. After a year of what seemed like silence, the roar of the crowd welcomed us back and the train left the station!
The journey was rough at times, there was so much to cover with a sung-through show and the momentum just kept speeding onward; we rocked and rolled with Greaseball, lurched through Freight is Great, bounced with the Pop-Diva Coaches, buzzed with Electra, and hip-hopped with the the Hip Hoppers. The engines raced - there was drama and triumph and in the end Rusty the Steamtrain proved that all our dreams could come true with the just a little Starlight.
There is indeed a light at the end of the tunnel…