Starlight Express: Difference between revisions

* [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold]]: Belle is implied to be one.

* [[Husky Russkie]]: Turnov, the Russian engine. Yes, there has been fan art of him informing the Rockies that he "must break you".

* [["I Want" Song]]: Several, including portions of "Call Me Rusty", and of course "Starlight Express".

* [[I Was Quite a Looker]]: Belle. As she says in her song

''Those who rode on me compared me to

''The Orient Express.''}}

* [[Jerk Jock]]: All the locomotives except for Rusty and Poppa exhibit this trope to some degree, with Greaseball being the most outrageous example.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: Pearl, if you tilt your head and squint. She's easily as big a [[Jerkass]] as Greaseball and Electra -- telling a sweet boy who loves her that he's not good enough for her, stealing her best friend's man and telling Dinah to quit crying over it, bragging that she's particularly shiny and new -- but rather than get her comeuppance for it, she's rewarded with a happy ending.

* [[Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number]]: Three songs did this: First, there was the opening of Act II, in which all the engines prepared for the big final race in the championship. In the West End production and the recent US tour, it was called "The Rap," and was rewritten three times, basically because the first one didn't really sound like rap. The second one, written in 1992, sounded a little more like rap, but the early period. In 2003, a new rap was written which more accurately represented the genre. For the 1987-1989 Broadway version exclusively, a new song was added as kind of a continuation to the "Freight" coda, which had electricity, steam, and diesel fighting against each other in contrapuntal song, which then led to the big races which would then end with one train winning the "Silver Dollar" (rather than the Champion of the World). The other song that falls in this category is "The Hymn To Victory" which has been in every production since. This is another continuation of the aforementioned "Freight" Coda, with everyone raising their voices in an even louder, earth-shaking chorale, with a massive High C from Rusty. Here, this song is sung [[The Song Before the Storm|before the final heat, specially prepared on a downhill course.]] Rusty joined in the singing, even though he was disqualified from the final, so you can hear the [[Control Freak|Control's voice]] ordering for the Marshals to stop Rusty from entering the tracks, {{spoiler|but it is too late.}}

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: In the planning stages, [http://www.bellesdomain.co.uk/stex/bellesong3.gif Electra's name was Elton]. When Jeffrey Daniels joined the project, the character was rewritten as a caricature of him.

* [[Porn Stache]]: The actor who originated C.B. sported one, in keeping with his early "trucker" character design. Eventually, the character was redesigned into the aforementioned "tin soldier," which fit his [[Tenor Boy|voice type]] better.

* [[Praetorian Guard]]/[[Paid Harem]]: Electra's components: Joule the dynamite truck, Krupp the armaments truck, Purse the money truck, Wrench the repair truck, and Volta the freezer truck.

** It doesn't help that the US tour ''reused'' the Las Vegas costumes until they literally fell apart.

* [[Sung Through Musical]]

* [[This Is a Song]]: "Poppa's Blues."

* [[Those Two Guys|Those Two Girls]]: Ashley and Buffy.

* [[Totally Radical]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9whdKasGK8 The twenty-first-century version of "The Rap,"] which somehow sounds more characteristic of the 1980s than its 1980s predecessor.

* [[Underdogs Never Lose]]: [[Double Subversion|Double Subverted]] in the original version, in which Rusty raced the second heat and lost it before breaking the rules to enter the final, which he won. Played straight in all other productions.

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: Electra's eventually [[Cut Song|cut]] [[BSOD Song]] "No Comeback" is a ''spectacular'' example of this. In the original production, he came in second to Rusty in the final race -- no shame in that. But his pride was so mortified by the fact that everyone else was either too busy congratulating Rusty or making sure Greaseball was okay that he pitched a gigantic temper tantrum in which he nearly destroyed the rail yard, then went off to lick his wounds elsewhere with his components. By contrast, Greaseball learns his lesson and is allowed to join the heroes in their happy ending.

* [[Villain Song]]: C.B. detailed his murderous past in "C.B." in the original London production, which was edited into "Wide Smile, High Style" on Broadway and "Mein Spiel" in Bochum.

* [[Wrench Wench]]: Wrench. Obviously.

* [[You Are Better Than You Think You Are]]: This is essentially the crux of the "Starlight Sequence" ("I am the Starlight" in the original production), where the Starlight Express shows up to convince Rusty that he can win the race if he just believes in himself.