BWW Reviews: STARLIGHT EXPRESS, New Wimbledon Theatre, May 15 2012

If you think of her career as starting with "Like a Virgin", Starlight Express (at New Wimbledon Theatre until May 19 and on tour) has been around longer than Madonna. "Like a Virgin (Train)" looks likely to outlast even the Queen of Pop - and this new production shows you exactly why.

Though the plot just avoids going off the rails into something possibly too sentimental even for musical theatre, the spectacle is the reason audiences all over the world have bought return tickets for the Lloyd Webber blockbuster. Even the songs are but a platform for the actor / performers to skate and spin, dance and dodge, jump and jive between lights and lasers. Though the touring aspect of the show precludes the skaters branching out into the house (as they did at the Apollo for all those years), a 3D film takes us down tunnels and across points at express speed, as locomotives go loco in races.

The cast is a mix of old Starlight hands like Mykal Rand and Lothair Eaton, alongside relative newcomers to the fleet, Kristofer Harding and Amanda Coutts, whose singing shines even more brightly than the lights. The dancing is somewhat variable, but that they can dance at all on wheels and dressed like American footballers, is praiseworthy in itself. The live band - no tapes! - are tremendous throughout and deserved a curtain that they didn't get, remaining hidden in the sidings.

If you've seen Starlight before, you'll know you're in for an evening of first class entertainment: if, like me, you haven't, leave the cynicism at home and wallow in the unadulterated feelgood showmanship of an institution that is destined never to run out of steam.