Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Starlight Express," a spinoff of "The Little Engine that Could," skated into Wharton Center's Great Hall on Tuesday night and is here to stay for a few more days.
"Starlight Express" is the story of a young boy sent to bed by his mother in the middle of playing with his model train set. The audience never sees the boy but clearly hears him as he narrates the show.
While asleep, the boy dreams his trains come to life and develop personalities of their own. Within the dream, trains from all over the world have a race to determine who is the fastest.
While Webber's intentions were to entertain children with this headache-inducing musical, the intertwined love story between Rusty, a steam engine who doesn't believe he can win the race, and Pearl, an observation car who can't decide which train she wants to date, is not meant for young children.
The 24-member cast on roller skates dresses in fanciful, high-tech costumes that add a sci-fi feel to the show. But all this excitement might scare a young child and create nightmares instead of a fun, playful dream.
Plus, the female trains look like Playboy Bunnies as they skate around in their provocative swimsuit-looking attire. In reality, the dream this young boy has resembles that of a teenage boy.
But, to add excitement to the show, the violence-filled train races are in 3-D. Whenever a race starts, the audience is instructed to put on their 3-D glasses by the young boy, which is suitable for children.
There are moments when you might catch a glimpse of a character roller skating up a ramp and flipping upside down and landing perfectly.
You might see sparks of electricity flying outside of cast members' skates or huge masses of smoke, but the highlight of the show is the image of a night sky glowing with stars.
Along with 500 light bulbs on the set and 360 stage lights, 400 fiber-optic points of light on the back wall are used to create this believable image.
Political science and pre-law senior Kylie Johnson, who first saw the show at Wharton when she was 11, said she enjoyed the show as an adolescent more than she did this time around.
"I think that the dancing and singing is great, but I like the old one better," she said.
Johnson, 24, said she enjoyed the added 3-D element but said the audience was able to interact more with the original version.
"The stage was a lot larger," she said of the performance 12 years ago. "They brought a ramp out into the audience, and the (cast) would actually race around you."
Johnson said the roller skating on Broadway along with racing trains is original and makes for a colorful show.
MSU alumna Anne Erickson, who also saw the show in 1991 with Johnson, said she was thrilled when she learned it was coming back.
"We were ecstatic," she said.
Erickson said she and Johnson loved the show so much after seeing it in 1991, they made their own adaptation of "Starlight Express" and roller-skated all summer as young girls.
Both women said even people who don't consider themselves fans of musicals might enjoy "Starlight Express."
If you would like to experience this production for yourself and discover which train wins the race, "Starlight Express" will show at 7:30 p.m. tonight; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; and a 7 p.m. show on Sunday.
