Engines on roller skates are heading for the big screen. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express, filmed during its 2024 revival at Wembley, opens in cinemas on 26 November 2026, and a new trailer arrived with the date.
Trafalgar Releasing is distributing the film, which carries the full title Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express - Live on Stage. It reaches screens in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Australia and Canada, among other territories, on 26 November and will play for a limited time only. Cinema tickets went on sale today, 15 October, through starlightexpressincinemas.com.
The cameras caught the Starlight Express that opened at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in June 2024, produced by Michael Harrison for Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals and directed by Luke Sheppard, whose West End work includes & Juliet and The Little Big Things. Brett Sullivan of Steam Motion and Sound, whose credits include Hadestown, directed the filming in London.
Jeevan Braich plays Rusty, the steam engine nobody backs to win. Around him on the track are Jade Marvin as Momma McCoy, Olivia Ringrose as Greaseball, Asher Forth as Electra, Sophie Naglik as Pearl, Georgia Pemberton as Dinah and Jaydon Vijn as Hydra.
The story starts in a child's bedroom, where a toy railway wakes up and its engines race to be crowned the fastest in the world. Rusty looks hopelessly outclassed until the legend of the Starlight Express gives him something to run for. The score takes in AC/DC, Make Up My Heart, Light at the End of the Tunnel and the title song, along with Hydrogen, a number Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote for this revival with Richard Stilgoe, the show's lyricist from the start.
Behind the speed is a large creative team. Tim Hatley designed the set and Gabriella Slade, of Six, the costumes, with lighting by Howard Hudson, sound by Gareth Owen and video by Andrzej Goulding. Ashley Nottingham choreographed, and Arlene Phillips returned to the show as creative dramaturg. Matthew Brind wrote new orchestrations with Andrew Lloyd Webber and shares musical supervision with David Wilson; Denise Crowley is musical director. Wigs are by Campbell Young, make-up by Jackie Saundercock and casting by Pearson Casting.
The original London production arrived in 1984 and stayed for 17 years, and the show has since been seen by more than 30 million people worldwide. When the Wembley revival was first announced, it promised a reinvention for a new generation; it went on to collect an Olivier Award for Best Costume Design and a record seven WhatsOnStage Awards, and its producers count it as the longest-running London revival of a Lloyd Webber musical in 20 years.
Trafalgar Releasing put out the new trailer for the film alongside the release date.
The trailer can also be watched on YouTube.
There is nothing to book on stage in London: the Wembley run has ended, and the next chance to see the production live is the world tour that sets off in 2027. For the film, participating cinemas are listed at starlightexpressincinemas.com.
