Rock on rollerskates

WITH green munchkins, crashing chandeliers and felines having already prowled our theatre stages, it's probably safe to say that Singapore has seen the best that the world of musicals has to offer. But there's always room for one more spectacle that we haven't seen - Starlight Express - where the cast of 28 performs the entire show on roller-skates.

The rock musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber is one of the longest-running musicals at West End in London, about a child's dream where his toy trains come to life at night and race for the title as the "fastest engine in the world". The show first started out in West End, in 1984, where it played for over 7,000 performances, and also had a shorter run at Broadway in New York, before going on tour around the world. One of their upcoming stops is at the Marina Bay Sands Grand Theatre here in Singapore next week.

"It's a universal love story, and audiences all over the world can relate to the themes and characters - the goodies, the baddies, the competition and, of course, the romance," says Arlene Philips, a renowned West End choreographer who has worked on Starlight Express since its Broadway days. Along with Tony award-winning director Trevor Nunn and Drama Desk Award-winning set designer John Napier, they brought the show from its original set in London and adapted it to the Broadway stage.