The run closed January 8, 1989
- Opened
- March 15, 1987
- Closed
- January 8, 1989
- Performances
- 761
- Previews
- —
- Theatre
- George Gershwin Theatre
Of the 465 productions we hold that opened in the 1980s and record a performance count, this is the 27th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.
Other stagings of Starlight Express 2 more that season
| 1984 | Transfer Transfer | |
| 2003 | Transfer Transfer |
Who was in it49 named
Janet Williams Adderley
Michael Berglund
Paul Binotto
Philip Clayton
William Frey
Ronald Garza
Sean Grant
Michael Scott Gregory
D Michael Heath
Lon Hoyt
Todd Lester
Frank Mastrocola
Sean Mcdermott
Gordon Owens
Nicole Picard
Angel Vargas
Melanie Vaughan
Mary Windholtz
Christina Youngman
Keith Allen
Bryan Batt
Kimberly Blake
Danielle Burgio
Brian Carmack
Ronny Devito
Marvin Engran
Stacia Goad
Stacey Heinz
Dorie Herndon
Roger Kachel
Michael O Steen
Ken Rose
John Schiappa
Marc Villa
Harold Yi
14 of these 49 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 35 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name — so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.
Characters9 roles recorded
Greg Mowry Rusty
Reva Rice Pearl
Robert Torti Greaseball
Kenneth Ard Electra
Jane Krakowski Dinah the Dining Car
Jamie Beth Chandler Buffy the Buffet Car
Andrea McArdle Ashley the Smoking Car (From 2018 Belle)
Steve Fowler Poppa (From 2018 Momma)
Michael Scott Gregory Dustin
Only 512 of 13,459 productions carry role names, and these came out of a wiki table — the names arrived with the table's own cell markup on them and have been stripped back. They are not linked to person records because the identifiers in that table do not resolve to ours.
Creative team
- Director
- Trevor Nunn
- Choreographer
- Arlene Phillips
- Producer
- Martin Starger & Lord Grade
- Orchestrations
- David Cullen
A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.
Tony Awards 0 from 1 nomination
| Best Musical | Nominated |
Around this production
Starlight Express (3/15/87) was the composer’s next Broadway show. It opened at the GERSHWIN THEATRE, with Greg Mowry as Rusty, Steve Fowler as Poppa, and Reva Rice as Pearl. Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 574
- At a cost of well over $8 million — the highest in Broadway history — Starlight. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 268
- A presold hit with an $18 million advance, the show made Andrew Lloyd Webber the first composer to have three musicals running simultaneously in London and New York. (The other two: Cats and Starlight Express .) Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 272
- At a cost of well over $8 million—the highest in Broadway history—Starlight Express solidified the British invasion by joining Cats, Me and My Girl, and Les Misérables as one of the four biggest Main Stem attractions during the first half of 1987. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Green Stanley Green Kay 5th Ed Rev and Updated By, p. 300
- Andrew Lloyd Webber first mounted a “cabaret” production of Aspects of Love in 1983 at the annual music festival on his Sydmonton estate. The musical again involved him with his The Phantom of the Opera colleagues Charles Hart, Gillian Lynne, Maria Bjornson, and Andrew Bridges, and reunited him with director Trevor Nun… Broadway Musicals Show By Show Green Stanley Green Kay 5th Ed Rev and Updated By, p. 307
- The next production at this theatre, the British spectacular Starlight Express (1987), required the theatre to be turned into a gigantic roller rink, with the cast rollerskating on ramps and bridges around the stage to give the impression of being railroad cars. One of the costliest productions ever staged on Broadway… At This Theatre 100 Years of Broadway Shows Stories and Botto Louis Viagas Rober, p. 344
Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.
What this page does not know
- No photograph of this staging. 48 of 13,459 productions hold one.
- No recording is held for Starlight Express at all.
- Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.