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Was PINOCCHIO UNSTRUNG high on my viewing list? No. Did I end up liking PINOCCHIO UNSTRUNG? Also no. Is it in good cinematic literary health to go see any movie I can, even movies I chance are bad movies? Yes.

I wasn’t a banana milkshake person but the #SUNNYAct rally banana milkshake (made in a blender powered by solar) was tasty.

Don't make fun of Kash Patel! How would you like it if you have to live with being the donor recipient of a Muppet's eyeballs?

When I visited the West End, I knew I had to convince my family to buy the #StarlightExpress ticket because, bad musical or good musical, I knew this was a kind of theatre space I would NOT ever see in the Great White Way. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG91...

Starlight Express Official London Trailer | Starlight ExpressYouTube video by Starlight Expresswww.youtube.com

TOO LATE

From what I *know* secondhand is that the West End revival’s #StarlightExpress book is apparently sanitized compared to other stagings.

Wait in the Wings got into the messy history of #StarlightExpress. youtu.be/ZTXtLNsrvlI?...

The Painful History of Lloyd Webber's WILD Train MusicalYouTube video by Wait in the Wingsyoutu.be

Oh yes, I love #CatsJellicleBall, a remarkable reimagined revival that elevates the text in its own rainbow. I hope it still pops up elsewhere, and I suspect it could try for West End. It’s premature Broadway closing was yet another conversation about Broadway sustainability.

This remains the WORST lyric/line I’ve ever heard in all the musicals I’ve seen. And I got obsessed. bsky.app/profile/maxi...

#StarlightExpress, at least the West End revival I saw, has the spectacle but not quite the textures of CATS.

Something you should know about me is that I’m on Team “Andrew Lloyd Webber’s #Cats is actually a pretty GOOD, going off the replica-ish revival I saw, and the original musical actually being good plays a role in the excellence of the subsequent #CatsJellicleBall revival (closing too soon).”

I saw the West End staging. Did I think it was a good musical? Nah. Did I get a little obsessed? YES. #StarlightExpress

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb8z...

Starlight Express Family GuyYouTube video by xQsNGamingxwww.youtube.com

Well, okay, yes for realsies we need trains and well-funded public transportation in general, but STARLIGHT EXPRESS.

Did you say, you want TRAINS? You'll never find trains... until you give in, to the STARLIGHT EXPRESS. "If only you use the power within you Needn't beg the world To turn around and help you If you draw on what you have within you Somewhere deep inside." www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vy2...

Starlight Express perform a medley | Olivier Awards 2025 with MastercardYouTube video by OfficialLondonTheatrewww.youtube.com

The really chuckle-worthy opening is an actor playing a random audience member, characterized as a NEW YORKER btw, who annoyingly picked up his cell phone and then wanders onto the stage and gets transported to the whimsical land of ancient Greece theater, a-la Dorothy being plucked from Kansas.

I didn’t photograph it but there was a Jack and Rose “I’m flying” TITANIC shout-out pose during a musical number. Ah yes, even ancient Greek plays make pop cultural references.

Per Wikipedia, this highlighted paragraph was the segment the troupe performed. The rest would be too much for their non-Greek audience.

One of the comic segments "Medea and Other Friends I Made in Athens" was "WOMEN IN POWER" (the title they used, as the play is known as ASSEMBLYWOMAN on Wikipedia). To me, the performance landed in cringe, an element of "haha, men trying to act like women and wearing dresses."

Assemblywomen - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Watching the Spike Lee proshot of #PassingStrange was also my introduction to Colman Domingo.