The Opening Weekend of Starlight Express Hits Off as a Success

This past weekend Beyond The Page Theater Company has once again amazed the community with the premier of their spring musical, Starlight Express. With the entire show on rollerskates, the fast-paced dance sequences and  high energy songs led to well deserved standing ovations each night.

From late fall last year to this week, the cast has had many skating rehearsals needed for the “Fastest Show on Earth”, including practices over spring break.

“[My favorite memory of Starlight was] over spring break, we had six hour practices, and on the last day, we all just sat down and Clark was doing a bunch of cool tricks, and everyone was just skating around, it was a family moment. People say that as a cliche but Starlight is family,” said senior Lena Harmata, who plays Hip Hopper 2.

The “Starlight family” includes an incredibly talented cast, a band and chorus made up of West Potomac student performing the music live and a backstage crew that have made this production possible.

“The show has 43 songs, 1,000 feet added to the stage, and over 600 light cues, ” said set designer junior Ella Moore. “It’s a really big tackle, [this experience] has been pretty amazing.”

The stage additions, creative costumes and wonderful lighting cues have wowed the audience and made this production one of the biggest West Potomac has seen. With one weekend down and one to go, the excitement is palpable.

“Opening night was so amazing and second night was even better and it’s just going to get better and better until the ending show. It’s going to be fabulous,” said head of props junior Helen Kitrosser. “It is a lot of work to get all of the costumes to work, all of the sounds and lighting to work, it’s a holistic production, it’s everyone coming together. It’s so unique and amazing in itself.” 

Don’t miss your chance to see this talented and committed cast perform “The Fastest Show on Earth” May 5th at 5:00 pm, May 6th at 7:00 pm, and May 7th at 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm.