Second time around

Starlight Express, musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber with lyrics by Richard Stilgoe

A romance performed on skates.

It's a few years since I last saw a production of this unusual musical. So, when it came to the Lowry, I thought, 'Why not?' The music was just as good as before, but the same could not be said of the performance.
Nothing wrong with the casting, they were very good.


So, what was/were the problems?
They stemmed from that good old saw, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. Meddling around with the 'choreography', shortening the performance and attempting it on a far smaller stage.
They went overboard on lighting effects and louder sound, but this did not compensate for the size or lack of size of the stage. I note it's comping to Liverpool, but once again it's one of the smaller theatres. Makes me glad I saw the full size version.