For thirty-six years, the German production has received a standing ovation each night. Graf goes to psych herself up before major tennis tournaments. And an international football team would be surpassed by the German squad.
Author Richard Stilgoe
I was told by Andrew Lloyd Webber, “I have this narrative.” The plan was to make an animated movie based on Thomas the Tank Engine, but early in the 1980s, animation was quite expensive, therefore that plan was never carried out. After that, we got to work on the Rocky Mountain Railroad project. To choose who would have the honor of accompanying Prince Charles and Diana on a royal tour, there was going to be a train race across America. For you, there is history. In his attic, Andrew owned a train set. As a boy, I had one. It didn’t appear to be a stupid notion. It wasn’t such a big leap to have people pretend to be trains after doing a presentation where we had people pretend to be cats.
Starlight Express writing was a teaching experience. I had always composed my own music until that point. I had to pick up the skill of fitting words to other people’s music rapidly. If I wrote the first and third verses on my own, I could write anything I wanted in the middle. But everything has to work out well with Andrew.Even though the first night was hardly heard, the critics weren’t beyond being nasty about the song’s lyrics.
There was a wonderful day in 1983 when Andrew, our director Trevor Nunn, our designer John Napier and I stood in the ruins of Battersea power station, seriously discussing whether Andrew should buy the building to put Starlight Express on in it. It was one of the many days when I have felt I am definitely out of my league here. I had impostor syndrome to an amazing extent.