#ray shell

[24601orwhatever]

Ray Shell singing Starlight Express :)

[stex-actors-maxxing]

Actor maxxing: Day 17

Ray Shell

Rusty - 1984-86 (London)

Poppa - 1996-98

Poppa - 2009-10 (Bochum)

[acoldghostlypresence]

Practicing drawing people who look like people with help from Banana Boi's tutorial. Who would've guessed drawing from life helps your drawings to look more like life?

No joke though this videos excellent, highly recommend them to anyone who's found the usual beginner tutorials you used to watch are no longer useful to you.

[dinahdoeeyes]

The world if there was a pro-shot, or at least a bootleg, of the original production of Starlight Express starring the original cast:

[bellesdomain]

What is your favorite version of “starlight express” the song? It’s gone through a lot of lyric changes and I would love to know which version you think is best.

Easy answer - the original 1984! Partly I adore Ray Shell's voice, but I really love the bridge that got cut, "I can hear that train, here again..." it's low, it's syncopated, it builds up beautifully to really open up into the main theme... it adds a little bit more complexity to the song, just another flavour on top. It's fine without, but when you can have the option with more, why take less?

There's such interesting thematic links between what melodies are used where... like the verse of "When the night is darkest" being the verse of "Only He" - but "When the night is darkest" was introduced in the Broadway production, when they used the smaller, simpler "Only You/Du Allein" - I wonder if ALW particularly liked it and didn't want to lose that bit of melody?

There's so much story telling between "Starlight Express", the "Starlight Sequence", and "Only He/ Only You" - the way the Starlight Sequence is combining the the theme of Rusty's searching, needing - and the fulfilment, the confidence of the "Only You" melody, which makes the love song a reprise of Rusty's finding himself, his confidence, his purpose... having found himself, Pearl finds herself with the same melody, they come together and it's beautiful.... ahhhh....

Getting off topic about the love song there! But it is related - very directly. But yes, I put the original version of "Starlight Express" top, and honestly all the others are equal = very good second choice. I don't hate any of them, but I love the original best!

[pealeii]

i lobe them

[greenghostlyjekyll]

🚂Call Me Rusty If You Dare!🚂

Stimboard for original London cast Rusty, played by Ray Shell

🚂 🌟 🚃 | 🌟 🚃 🌟 | 🚃 🌟 🚃

[dinahdoeeyes-archived]

“I wish I could’ve seen them... I’m sure they were amazing,” I say dramatically, like an eccentric movie villain, talking about the original cast of Starlight Express performing Starlight Express.