The Midnight Train Crossing

I saw Starlight Express in July 2003 in Green Bay, WI and then in Minneapolis, MN. In both of those cities, Rusty was played by Franklyn Warfield, who is first cast Rusty (and is lovely). Six months later, I was lucky enough to see Starlight again in Tucson AZ (January 2004). As I found out later, Franklyn was ill that week, and so he did not perform. I saw on the callboard that tonight (and three of the following performances) the role of Rusty would be played by Jeremy Kocal, the first cast Red Caboose. Another night, Rusty was played by Brandon Warner who is a swing. All three of these actors did wonderful jobs, but considering that they are indeed different people, their performances were slightly different, hence this brief "essay"

When I saw that Jeremy Kocal was playing Rusty that night I knew that I would have to field many questions about "how was he" as Rusty, so I took notes after the show. It was considerably easier since I usually pay close attention to Rusty anyway. This comparison is probably not as accurate as it could be because, while I do remember seeing Starlight in July very vividly (and I took notes) it has been five months. I also saw Brandon Warner as Rusty, but I only saw him once so his comparisons will probably fade in and out. For the most part, he struck me as being very similar to Franklyn Warfield's Rusty. Some differences may be due to the five month difference between seeing the shows, so perhaps some of it is choreography changes, but I am not sure so for purposes of this, I shall consider the differences to be simply between the actors.

Knowing that Jeremy is blonde, I noticed that on first glance, he seemed to have dark hair. This was nice because I have always thought that Rusty should have brown hair. :) Jeremy as Rusty (He shall hence forth be referred to as JR because I'm too lazy to come up with another way. Franklyn Warfield shall be known as FR and Brandon Warner, BR) also always wore the red headband that the other two would wear only during the second act. (Contrary to what the program pictures show). This struck me a bit a odd, but not distractingly so. There is also a slight height difference between the three Rusty's. BR is tall (nearly the same height as the other engines), but skinny. FR is taller, but still shorter then the other engines (maybe due to different skate heights?) and JR is way shorter then everybody else.
JR was the most shoved around Rusty I think in terms of actually physical shoving. Greaseball stopped all three Rusty's in different ways. FR was grabbed by the front of his shirt and while GB was holding him, he would brush dirt (rust?) off Rusty, who (if I remember correctly) only gave a bit of a half-hearted struggle. BR was caught by the shoulder by GB as he passed him. JR was caught by the edge of his backpack. Apparently it took him a moment to realize this because he rolled in place a bit before he discovered that he wasn't moving. When GB shrugged as Control yelled at him, he smacked JR in the chest. If he did this with the others, I didn't notice.

BR was the roughest on the coaches I think during the Call Me Rusty, particularly when he shoved Dinah, Buffy and Ashley up the side ramp. JR didn't push them as hard, but he was still pretty rough, and pretty good at ignoring the protests of the coaches.

During Freight, BR didn't show quite as much of a strain as FR and JR did. I don't remember the freight cars almost crashing into the coaches when Rusty was pushing them before, so I cannot really compare FR to the other two at that point. Neither Rusty seemed to notice the near mishap with the incoming freight train.
While the freight cars were doing their thing, they all appeared rather impatient with the freight cars to get moving again, although JR varied this a bit from night to night. Sometimes he was a bit more interested in seeing what they were doing rather then getting moving and other times he would be like "Come on guys!"
Most of them time, FR would spot the coaches get into trouble and absently give the freight cars a push before reaching the coaches, which collide into him, but at least stay on their wheels and then he would notice the freight cars speeding off to certain disaster. He would eep and race after them, but not get there in time.
BR would catch the coaches in the same way, but not notice the freight cars until they crashed, and then he rolled over to rescue them. JR varied, sometimes he wouldn't seem to noticed, and other times he would, but he would never come close to rescuing them.
There was not as much interaction between JR and Pearl during freight, as opposed to the others. With BR, Pearl was checking her make up, and then would look over at Rusty as if to say "How do I look" I suppose this is more Pearl then Rusty.
There was a lot more interaction and conversation between Pearl and FR, ranging from her trying to get him to come over by her, to her sorta making fun of the freight cars with him, to even blowing kisses.

The introduction to AC/DC was the same for all Rustys. He'd hurry off to push the coaches off to the side and then come back for the freight cars, taking them to the other side. With JR, when Pearl would come up behind him, he seemed rather startled by her. He'd been watching the components after all. BR and FR wouldn't seem to be surprised by Pearl. BR stood in front of Pearl for pretty much all of AC/DC, trying to be protective. FR would either stand in front of her, or when he was behind her, he would hold on to her couplings.
When Electra rolled up the ramp, with FR, Rusty and Pearl would spin around and she would end up in his arms. She also would end up in BR's arms, but JR just stood in front of her trying to protect her that way.
When Electra pulls Pearl out, all three Rustys would have the same reaction, trying to catch her couplings but missing and Electra pulling her in.
All of the cars, coaches and engines get pulled in by Electra except for Rusty. JR would watch, looking rather forlorn. BR rolled backwards (in place) frantically trying to escape from Electra's pull. FR fought as well, but more rhythmically and occasional hard pushes backwards. All three rush out to catch Pearl when Electra lets her go and catch her, only to have her faint in his arms.

At the beginning of Pumping Iron, FR was the only one to make a visible face at the sound of Greaseball coming out. BR rather cutely flexed his arm and measured his own muscles. JR didn't have too much of a visible reaction beyond just looking up. FR pulled together the most obvious fake excited look as Pearl would start bouncing around excitedly. JR didn't look nearly as fakely excited. When Greaseball comes down the ramp, sparks flying, JR pretends to be a bit too close and he throws up an arm as if to protect his head from the sparks.
Throughout Pumping Iron, FR looks mildly annoyed for awhile - usually when Greaseball isn't looking, but after a bit he relaxes and does dance along a bit off to the side. However, as soon as Greaseball dances with Pearl, he freezes, watching this with a pout, quite upset indeed that the diesel engine is dancing with Pearl - who he already thinks of as "his". And then when Pearl, all excited, comes over to him, he pretends to be excited for her.
Whenever Greaseball would skate past BR, he would sort of smile at the diesel, but generally just stay out of his way. He either had a very good sense of self preservation, or he just wasn't all that annoyed with Greaseball. (I'm inclined to think it's the former). He would occasionally try to wave Pearl over, but he gave up on that rather quickly.
JR had a very different approach to things. When the coaches all gather around Greaseball to start off, he rolls his eyes and is like "Good grief" (Though I think what he actually said looked like "Oh boy...") but he gets over it quickly and dances along as well, though he would always back off a bit whenever Greaseball would skate past.
When Greaseball dances with Pearl, JR has a VERY different reaction then the "Hey that's *my* Pearl!" which FR used. After the few beats that she dances with the diesel, JR has no need to pretend to be excited for her - he already is. While she's dancing, JR varied from clapping for her and giving her a thumbs up sign.
This part here was one of the major differences between the two main Rustys. ((Not to slight Brandon, but I really only saw him once)). I think that just that little adlib really does have an effect on the way Rusty is. JR's Rusty really has no suspicion at all that Pearl would ever go with somebody else.

It is difficult to make much of a comparison during the actual officially choreographed bits of the show. None of the three have ever done the following part in my ideal way:

There is no pause before the "right here" which I suppose indicated that he just doesn't catch the insult - which I do think would be cuter.

The intro to Crazy was one of the parts where listening to JR had to make me smile because, well, when you have seen (and listened) to somebody do Caboose so many times, it's hard not to recognize his voice, and Jeremy's is pretty distinctive in his tendency to go up and down the scale, so I've often had the rather amusing thought of Rusty flipping out and going into a round of Wide Smile, and this is one of the places. Interestingly, Call Me Rusty (which would make the most sense) was not one of those places.
As to BR, he makes Rusty sound much younger then the other two.
There isn't that much else that I can say about this song that was terribly different between the different actors. They've all got lovely voices so not much to compare there.

I'm sure that this was just a one-time ad-lib and I found it amusing because I'm me, but with FR I did notice that at the end of Crazy when he pushes the coaches off, Ashley sort of calls him over to push them off. Okay, so that's something that Kate Holbrook did once, not any of the Rustys, but still, it was different.

The next bit for comparison is the "Pearl You've Been Honored" bit. With FR, when Pearl would ask about Electra whistling and Purse's answer: "No AC trains don't", he would very slowly mime whistling (pulling the cord) and then grin and look at Purse rather smugly. He's all ready for Pearl to refuse to go, and is therefore really shocked when she says that she'll think about it.
Both JR and BR did not do this, they just stood there looking rather miffed the whole time that she's talking to Purse and then the miffed-ness increases to all out upset when she tells Purse that she'll think about it. With BR he protests a LOT when he's talking to Pearl and she shushes him. JR did not deviate from traditional lines at that point.
The only thing that I have to say about the "Did you have to break up my-" line is that they have since gotten the timing better as it now sounds like Control actually does interrupt Rusty.

Rusty enters during the second (I think) verse of Poppa's Blues. I know that it's before the harmonica. Whenever FR would do it, he would come in and come a bit too close to the Hip Hoppers so that he would nearly get kicked and then have to back off. I don't think that it was an accident because he did it this way all the time, but at anyrate, the other two didn't do it that way.

The dialogue after Poppa's Blues isn't exactly sung, but it is done in kind of a sing-song-ish way. Perhaps sing-song isn't the best way to say it, but it is in time with the background music, so call it what you will.
There was quite a difference as to the extent that the lines were sung or spoken. In the spectrum between singing and speaking it went in this order: FR, BR, JR. At times JR really did just speak his lines rather then any sort of singing. That said, some of the more obviously sung lines: "There's no place for steam on the railroad today" were sung by all three.
For example, the line "Pearl decided she's not racing with me." was almost simply spoken by JR rather then sung like the others. (It's on the "me" that you can tell. Trust me)
All three Rusty's have pretty much an equally cute expression on the half-hearted "steam".
JR was the most insistent that Poppa shouldn't race, and he gave Dustin a rather nice "Look" for agreeing to help Poppa.

During Laughing Stock, as with Call Me Rusty, JR was the most pushed around Rusty by the Gang. They would push him back and forth between them while he would try to get away. With FR, they would poke at him and hit him lightly while he stood there trying to fend them off.
And then Electra comes out and nearly runs into Rusty while trying to keep him away from Pearl.
FR was the only Rusty that sorta jumped when Caboose came up behind him to sing the There's Me bit. ((And really now, who could blame him?))
Laughing Stock was the other place where hearing JR yell out "Stop! I'll take Poppa's place!" he reminded me of a certain Red Caboose... But no, Rusty did not start singing Wide Smile here either.

All three actors have nice voices, so I've no complaints at all about Starlight Express. The only minor nit-picky thing which really has no importance ((And must therefore be mentioned)) is that while FR and JR would skate off backwards and off stage on the "I need you to be heerrreeeeee," BR didn't. He waited 'til he finished and then skated off away. BR also said the word "Starlight" oddly one of the times. I've no idea now how he pronounced it, but it wasn't too bad.

During the Rap, I found Rusty and Caboose's verse in the Rap quite funny when JR sang it for the same reason that I was amused during Laughing Stock and Crazy. That and... I just think that verse is rather cute anyway :)
The Rap is very choreographed so it's difficult to come up with many differences between the actors because, well, they are all pretty much doing the same thing.
FR did have a more disgusted expression when Pearl switched partners, although the last time that I saw JR he had a pretty good expression as well. JR was the only Rusty that didn't do the spin, and then zoom off stage looking cross when Pearl did her "Knock, knock" bit like the other two did. But again, he didn't do it the first time, but then did it later, so yeah.

During the first final, FR looked a bit more as though he were still trying to psyche himself up to do this - up until he yells out "Let's hear it for steam!" Neither BR or JR appeared to have that apprehension.

The bit after the final FR had the most obvious "ouch" expression and a visible attempt to pull himself together. He was also the loudest to protest at the "Rusty did it! He caused the wreck!" FR's miming of talking - arguing - with Trax was also a bit more dramatic. JR didn't look quite as dazed, and he did protest somewhat, but it wasn't as loud and it wasn't as much.

I have nothing terribly interesting to say about the Trashing Rusty scene with regards to comparing the different actors. They all had the usual expected reaction to being beaten up. The only noteworthy thing was that after being thrown to the ground, JR was absolutely still.
All three had the getting up and limping around the stage down nicely and it was another one of the times when one must resist the urge to run onstage and hug Rusty. :)

Right Place, Right Time was basically the same. ((Since this is a comparison on Rustys it's not the place to go into just how cool that song is to watch)). Once again, with the "Shut it! I was cheated!" JR sounded wonderfully like himself.
Once when I saw FR do it, one of the Hip Hoppers didn't exactly fall, but certainly got out of step and I just happened to look over at Rusty when he spotted this, so that particular performance was a bit different. Sometimes FR would have a bit more interaction with the Hoppers while they were performing. For example, One would look over at him and be like "You listenin'?" and he'd nod, but I didn't notice any of this happening with JR or BR. JR for his part was more occupied with just sitting there sadly, half-listening but more lamenting his bad luck. BR I don't have much to say about because I got distracted by watching the Hoppers (which is sorta normal).
All three had a rather tearful delivery of the "Guess they're right..." line.

JR rather blew me away during the beginning of Starlight Sequence when he yelled out "STARLIGHT EXPRESS!!" holding it for a full ten counts, which was pretty darn impressive.
During the song itself, FR would jerk when the "Starlight" would start singing and then again on the line "I am YOU!" (And one of the times that I saw it (I think it was the 3rd night maybe) it was just a tiny bit overdone). JR didn't do this at all, and BR would do a much milder variation on this where he would just sit up straighter.
The Starlight Sequence is one of the most important songs for me and I was not disappointed by any of the Rustys that I saw :)

Again, JR blew me away at his entrance for the final final. It wasn't on the "Earth, water, air, fire" part, but on the "Rise Higher" that Rusty sings while everyone else is doing the "Who's gonna win?" chant. I was impressed at how high he got. I knew that as Caboose he could hit some pretty high notes, but they wouldn't be particularly pretty. ((Tisn't Ray Shell-style pretty, but nice nonetheless)) But on the "Rise Higher" part not only could you tell that Rusty was singing *something* but what exactly he was singing.

The Final race is prerecorded of course so there was no variation in performers, but there is still something worth stating. Rusty and Caboose both have lines during the race which are also pre-recorded, which meant that regardless of who was playing Caboose, it was still Jeremy's voice saying "See ya Pearl!" and Franklyn's "I gotcha Pearl!" which made it really rather funny when Jeremy was Rusty.

During Next Time You Fall In Love, I liked JR's singing a bit better, particularly in the refrain.
They changed a bit of the end of the song so that I can't compare it really, because when I saw FR do it, he and Pearl would kiss at the end of the song, but that bit seems to have been nixed, and I haven't really much else to say on this part.

After Next Time, when the rest of the cast comes onstage it seemed to take FR a very long time to realize that there were other people there - he only has eyes for Pearl. Finally he does tear a way to talk to Dustin for a bit, but then he goes back to Pearl and they spend from then up to Light At The End of the Tunnel in each others arms.
JR and BR were both a bit more willing to notice the other come in but I think that this, again, is due to the fact that they've changed the end of Next Time a bit (Getting rid of the kiss), but they are both much more interested in Pearl then anything else.

The very very last scene of the play was cute with all of the actors, but again they all did have slightly different ways of doing it - mostly just the expressions that they had.
FR would wave Pearl over and his expression would be like, "Come here" sorta like, "let's go!" and then afterwards he alternated between a really cute semi-shy expression and just a big grin.
BR kinda did a double take and then went over for his kiss.
After the kiss with JR he had a rather victorious expression like, "Yeah!"

And as that takes me up to the end of the play, this is all that I can remember about the differences between the actors. If I've not listed something it's probably because 1) they all did it reasonably the same or 2) I didn't notice it/didn't write it down.

The End :)

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