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So how did I get into this whole Starlight Express thing?
In 2000, while working on biology homework, I was channel surfing and I wandered onto PBS just in time to see an ad for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat which was being shown on that station later that night. So I hurried through my homework in order to watch the show later that night.
I had never seen that show and I adored it. I watched it constantly for several weeks and researched at my library for all of the recordings of the show that I could find.
Then I decided to branch out a bit and search for other shows by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Of course I found Cats and Phantom and a few other things, and then I stumbled upon a CD that intrigued me just because of the title... Starlight Express.
So I brought that CD home, listened to it, and fell in love. The first CD that I listened to was the New York Concept CD, which really doesn't explain the show all that well, so I didn't know that much about it... just that it had some awesome songs.
Shortly after that, we got the internet at home and I decided to google search Starlight Express... upon which I learned a lot about the show... like that it is performed on roller skates.
I also found out that the only places it was playing was in London and Germany. I met a lot of nice people online that increased my collection of Starlight Express things, and I made it a personal goal to someday see the show.
After I had been into the show for about a year, in 2001, it was announced that the show in London was closing after running for eighteen years. I was devastated to say the least.
I was going to graduate high school in the spring of 2002, and the show was slated to close in January 2002.
So, my parents decided that they were going to give me my graduation present early... a trip to see Starlight Express in London England.
I was there for three days and saw the show four times... and I fell in love again.
In my first year of college (or university for my non-US readers) it was announced that there was going to be a touring production of Starlight Express in 2003... and it was coming to three places near where I live. After seeing that for the first time in Green Bay WI, I fell in love once again, both with the show and with the cast. I had collected two other friends and we decided to go see the show in costume like people in England and Germany would do.
So I saw it in Minneapolis MN, Tucson AZ, Omaha NE and Providence RI for a total of fifteen times, bringing me up to a total of nineteen times seeing the show.
Then, in summer 2007 I decided that I was going to spend the money and go see the show in Bochum Germany. So I saw it there three times, bringing my total up to twenty one times.
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