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The New Starlight Express (1992 London Revival Cast) | 
 enlarge | Artists: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Richard Stilgoe
Label: Hip-O Records
Category: Music
List Price: $17.98
Buy Used: $2.50
You Save: $15.48 (86%)
New (3) Used (22) Collectible (2) from $2.50
Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 162907
Format: Cast Recording
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
UPC: 076744002624
EAN: 0076744002624
ASIN: B000005KOG
Release Date: October 22, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Overture | | • | Entry of National Trains | | • | Rolling Stock | | • | He'll Whistle at Me | | • | Freight | | • | AC/DC | | • | Pumping Iron | | • | Coda of Freight | | • | Crazy | | • | Make up My Heart | | • | Race One | | • | Poppa's Blues | | • | Race Two | | • | Starlight Express | | • | The Rap | | • | U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D. | | • | Race Three | | • | Right Place, Right Time | | • | Starlight Sequence | | • | Race Four | | • | Next Time You Fall in Love | | • | One Rock & Roll Too Many | | • | Light at the End of the Tunnel | | • | Starlight Express Megamix |
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| Customer Reviews:
 Incoherent January 8, 2008
Bo (Boston, MA)
Andrew Lloyd Webber is unquestionably a talented composer, but this is undoubtedly one of his poorest scores. The idea with this show seems to have been to combine the song pastiche musical formula from "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat" with the plotless parade-of-characters idea that was tried in "Cats" (though with inferior verse in this case. "Freight is Great" repeated over and over doesn't quite match T.S. Elliot.) The result is a thin concept held thinly together by a thin bunch of tunes. To be sure, the performances here are enthusiastic and professional, but these poor folks have been sent on a bum errand. I feel especially bad for the young lady (meant to be a boy) who is forced to narrate by interjecting facile "hey, wow, now look what's happening! It's getting really mean!" comments repeatedly. Viewers may have enjoyed the spectacle of the theatre show but the soundtrack on its own doesn't really make much sense. It's a lot harder to identify with trains/punks on roller skates than it is cats; one never cares much about any of these characters. Furthermore, the "rap" song thrown into this version to appeal to a nineties audience was as fake and cloying as the blues and rock songs herein. (The most memorable tune remains the title song, but one song does not a musical make.) The synthesizers and drum machines are much less enjoyable than real musicians might have been; this is a metallic story with a metallic heart, softened only by cheesiness.
 Dana, shut it !!! April 2, 2006
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is one of my fav c.d. I remember I was 5 the 1st time I heard this music + i LOVED it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Green day rox!!
Only worth it for two cast members March 28, 2006
nuingiliath
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you are going to get a CD of 'Starlight Express', you're better off going with the Original London Cast. Here, the sound has been improved and the songs updated, but leaves you with a less "alive" show. Caron Cardelle reduces Dinah to a stereotype that makes you want to slap her, and Greg Ellis's Rusty leaves much the same impression. With the focus much more on Pearl that any other coach or engine, Reva Rice gives us a soul-searching diva that is mostly only concerned with moaning/singing about her love life. 'Only He/Only You', when compared to the bland 'Next Time You Fall In Love', is the greatest love song ever written, as is the case of most of the new numbers. 'AC/DC', however, with a much more entertaining final verse, skips over the techno-babble to provide a glimpse of the real threat Electra and his components pose. While Maynard Williams (a much more energetic Greaseball), John Partridge (who manages to keep Electra both likeable and terrifying) and their terrific duet 'One Rock n Roll Too Many' are superb reasons to buy this recording, the OLC provides more plot, a better cast (Ray Shell, Stephanie Lawrence and Frances Ruffelle: you are sorely missed), better numbers and of course, the infamous Red Caboose.
VISUALLY STRONG, MUSICALLY STILL WEAK July 10, 2005
Marijan Bosnar (Croatia)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Seeing that his "Cats" have become a musical phenomenon in its own right after the London (1981.) and Broadway (1982.) premiere, Andrew Lloyd Webber decided to use the same formula on his next project, "Starlight Express". He collaborated with the same people, including Trevor Nunn as a director; Gillian Lynne as a choreographer and Richard Stilgoe provided the lyrics. The main problem of "Starlight Express" is that it pushes the Cats formula to a much bigger and higher degree. The composer dedicated this show to his children and to his own fascination with train toys.
Most of the show's appeal lies in its visual performance rather than in the score or the lyrics. The plot is even lighter than in Cats: it tells the story of the different trains. Rusty, a steam engine is in love with a glamorous carriage Pearl, but has to compete with other trains by racing them to win her affection. The holes in this simple plot were overshadowed by the grandiose staging that involved vigorous light show and cast members on roller-skates racing through the specially made stage. Because of that, Starlight proved to be a family-oriented show guaranteeing an entertaining evening. It was probably one of the main reasons why the show lasted in the West End until 2002. And yet the fact remains that on Broadway it passed rather unnoticed and didn't cover the basic investment.
The 1984 original 2-disc recording was very uneven: it had several good songs, but overall it wasn't a very good score and it sounded dated by today's standards, since the orchestrations were full of synthesizers and the disco-beat of the 80-is was more than evident. Seeing the problem, Lloyd Webber decided to re-orchestrate the whole thing in 1993, plus he wrote several new songs and left out a couple of the old ones. The result of all of those changes is mixed. The new songs (most notably, "Crazy", "Make up my heart" and above all, the touchy ballad, "Next time you fall in love", with lyrics by Done Black) are nicely composed and orchestrated, but for the most part, they serve as a well done pop pieces, rather than a basis for a much needed development of the original story. "Only he", the best musical number from the original is cut out and some of the numbers, mainly, "Starlight Express" and "I am Starlight" lack the power of the original. But overall, the orchestrations here are much more plausible than the ones made in 1984.
The lyrics, on the other hand, remain plain and unimaginative as they were back then. The cast on this CD did a good job in terms of singing. Reva Rice as Pearl and Greg Ellis as Rusty are a good vocal bland. Lon Satton reprises his 1984 role as Poppa and Starlight, though in a much quieter mood. John Partridge, who was a superb Rum Tum Tugger in a 1997 video version of Cats, has a cameo as Electra, singing with that charming voice of his.
The booklet comes with tiny photos and full lyrics. Just like the 1984 original, this version of "Starlight Express" should therefore be appreciated for its innovative staging and its individual moments rather than its worth as a whole. In this respect, it belongs to the less satisfying scores of Andrew Lloyd Webber and is not at all a must-have, but rather a mere addition to the collection of the composer's work.
Amazing show, good CD March 23, 2005
Julian T. Burton (Laramie, WY, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you're a fan of the show (and maybe even if you're not), don't hesitate to get this CD (definitely over the earlier versions - although the 1984 one has one song, "Only You", for which you should splurge on getting the '84 recording as well if you have the money). I've seen Starlight Express three times - every time I've been in London since the first time I saw it. It's always the first thing I plan when I go to England. When I found out my dad had two copies of the '93 soundtrack, I immediately grabbed one and took it home, and I've been listening to many of these songs over and over again since; I'd forgotten how good they were. "Make Up My Heart", "Next Time You Fall In Love", and "U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D." are my favorites, and stand out along with several others as music that you could have heard anywhere, rather than having that "retro-pastiche" (Buffy fans should recognize the phrase) feel you often find in musical soundtracks. It's not just a good soundtrack; it's good music.
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