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lottalucamotion · 4 years

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Stex Appreciation Month day 31: Nit Picks and What You’d Change

*Cracks knuckles*

Alright.

Once more this will be all text and no art since this is topic is probably better covered in words.

So basically I will be breaking down Stex into the way I would direct it if this was “Luca’s Starlight Express”. Some aspects will be full on changes, though most will just be a mix and match of aspects of different shows over the years that I liked.

So let’s begin this break down.

So first off I’ll talk about what seems to be wrong with Starlight and what the trends seem to show. I of course no nothing for sure, but this is just speculation based on rumors and little tidbits of information I’ve picked up on during my time in the fandom.

It seems like the biggest flaw that the show has is the lack of care, mainly by Andrew Lloyd Webber, for the show in general. While the show is heavily credited to have been created by ALW no doubt because he’s more the household name, Stillgoe is the one who really made Starlight what it is. Lloyd Webber was just reluctantly along for the ride. He was never fully on board with the idea of making Starlight a musical, and just intended for it to be a music collection for kids. It was to the point that ALW felt the need to put a disclaimer for critics saying that he didn’t really want to make it.

Starlight was always meant to be an audience entertainer, not a critic entertainer. From the minute it was conceived as a train musical on skates, it was damned to be crucified by critics, and well, the biggest issue with where it has ended up is the lack of acceptance to just let it be what it is.

This is not to say the show hasn’t always had some flaws. Where it seems to have always lacked is the story. It relied more on the spectical of being a series of being a roller skate show with music and races rather than a musical with a complex story and characters. Don’t get me wrong, this by no means implies the characters are not likable. The main cast has a lot of likable qualities even if they’re characterizations are fairly basic. In a sense this, give a chance for the audience to interpret the characters how they want. Though on the other hand it can also make the the main characters difficult to root for since their motivations are never really made clear.

In addition to that there are of course that matters of making certain characters out to be shallow stereotypes, and the critique that there is sexism in the story. Honestly, I think the poor direction in which the “fix” for the sexism critique is due to attention being paid too much to professional theatre critics who don’t actually want to give stex the time of day so they just say the story is sexist with no further elaboration, causing the direction to go blind into whatever the hell “I Need Me/Ich bin Ich” is.

Though not everything I would apply to my ideal stex is related to story. Most of it is just things are of no real consequence, just preference for this sequence or that song.

So now that this ramble is over, let’s actually get to the real meat of the matter.

I like the transition between the introduction of the nationals and Rolling Stock rather than starting with Rolling Stock.

I have a difficult time deciding whether Engine of Love should be Rusty’s intro or Call Me Rusty. I’m leaning more toward Engine of Love simply because I like that song more. Though putting in Engine of Love means that there won’t be any Whistled at Me variation. I would be okay with that even if I do love the pop version. Forgoing the “Dream Engine” plot point altogether honestly makes creating a more compelling characterization for Rusty and Pearl easy (Pearl’s dream train is a steam engine, and Rusty’s a steam engine so it just makes no sense why she would fall for and electric and diesel when she’s specifically looking for a steam engine).

So on that note let’s talk about what plot I have in mind for Rusty and Pearl. Pearl is a young excursion car who works around a lot of vintage engines for a luxury tourist line. Rusty and Pearl have known each other for a long time and promised each other that they would run their first race together.

While other engines are more inclined to be prejudiced toward steam engines, coaches find them quite romantic. However, Rusty’s physical state and the fact that he’s a switcher engine means that the coaches not only don’t believe he is capable of racing, but also believe it’s too dangerous for him. When Pearl agreed to race, she was not aware of how dangerous racing could be for Rusty.

Basically “Make Up My Heart” rewrite where Pearl makes the point that racing with Rusty could hurt him physically but she also doesn’t want to hurt his feelings.

It makes Pearl’s motives for leaving Rusty much less likely to be read as malicious, and makes more sense for their eventual romance.

As for Rusty, I prefer the writing going more toward how Rusty was originally written, more motivated to prove himself rather than racing to win over Pearl. Rusty’s reluctance to race coming from the fact that no one believes in him rather than just being rejected by Pearl. Obviously it stings the most coming from Pearl since the two of them were the closest, but she’s not the only factor. Maybe he even has thoughts that the coaches are right and he could get hurt.

Speaking of romances, let’s talk about Greaseball and Dinah. Dinah actions are likely the biggest sexism complaint source, and I won’t really deny that criticism. I get that we want everyone to get a happy ending at the end because that’s just the nature of this musical, it’s supposed to be light hearted and all. So if Greaseball and Dinah have to get together again, some justification should be given there, like implications that Greaseball and Dinah’s relationship beforehand is good and worth keeping even if just through the actors’ body language (like maybe Greaseball acting a bit more lovey-dovey toward Dinah in Pumping Iron rather than just having him treat her like all of the other coaches). Greaseball can still be a general asshole without being mean to Dinah. They can still have an argument about Greaseball’s cheating, but instead of having Dinah immediately backpedal to try to beg him out of leaving her, it should be an agreed action, where Dinah willingly leaves Greaseball as well as him leaving her.

Greaseball should also at one point show some sign of remorse, maybe he notices her in U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D., watches her, thinks about it for a bit after she leaves, but shakes it off for the time being since he has a race to focus on.

Back on the subject of songs, for Lotta Locomotion, I’d love to see it with more subtle lyrics like “A Lotta Locomotion” but slap hard like “A Whole Lotta Locomotion”.

Bring back the original coaches. Yeah maybe Ashley is “outdated” and not PC but this is coming from the same people who put the confederate flag on the diesel gang and named the British Engine Brexit. I can’t fathom why they got rid of Buffy too?

I like all versions of ACDC and think what version would be best depends a lot on the voice of who’s playing Electra.

Red Caboose toaster hat edition - no Canoose. Also Killerwatt has no rights, I’d bring back the original components.

I actually really like the newer versions of the Rockies, I just don’t like the new Right Place Right time, the original version was the best in my opinion.

Even though I would include Caboose, I do like how Flat Top was given a more prominent story role without him, and would kind of like to emulate that.

Dustin should also be given more fleshing out in the first act, for example, having him sing “There’s Me”. While on one hand, having Caboose sing There’s Me gives more ways to think about his character, it just makes sense to give that comforting role to someone like Dustin (plus Dinah and Dustin being friends would just be the cutest shit ever).

Go back to the “Hey you” version of the Rap, none of this train Tinder bullshit we have now.

I usually hate the love songs in Stex but “I Do” is one of my favorite of all stex songs so that can stay as is.

Lastly,

Bring back No Comeback.

#stex appreciation month

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