#c.b.

Okie doneeee

Me when im an evil red caboose 🛼

Starlight Express - Thierry Gondet

Say cheeeese :p

its very low quality cuz reasons but

THEMB!!!!

Reason: They are allies in every version they have together. They were pretty touchy with eachother, going so far as to couple for the last race. Gay trains <3

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Welcome to Broadway’s Finest “Foe-lies”: a tribute to some of the best villain songs from the world of musical theatre! (No Disney songs allowed; already did two lists for those.) Today, our countdown begins in earnest, as I begin ranking up my Top 31 Favorite Villain Songs from Broadway, the West End, and Beyond!

TODAY’S LYRICAL HINT: “Under the smiles, under the fun, I’m Public Enemy Number One!”

NUMBER 31 IS: C.B., from Starlight Express.

“Starlight Express” is arguably the weirdest musical ever created by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and one of the trickiest to pull off, for lots of reasons. It’s also an example of something we’ll see a couple of times over the course of this countdown: the ever-changing nature of theatre. One of the interesting things about theatre that makes it so unique from virtually any other form of media is how it evolves and changes over the years: not only is every separate performance different, by nature of it being live, but as time goes on different elements of various plays will be focused on. For example, there are numerous cuts and edits to the works of William Shakespeare, and people have set those plays, aesthetically, in all kinds of new locations and time periods.

However, Shakespeare has been…well…kind of DEAD for several centuries. It’s not entirely surprising people will adjust things over time to fit their ideas, since his work has been in the public domain for a very long time. It’s honestly so much more interesting to me to see how more recent productions, such as musicals of more contemporary eras, get changed and fixed up and adjusted and so on over time, as not only companies but the composers and other creative minds will find new ways to tell the story they want to tell, and perform the songs they want to perform.

In the case of “Starlight Express,” while the basic story has remained the same since 1984, so much of this show has been changed, retooled, and retroactively adjusted over time. There are songs and characters who keep popping up and disappearing again, and even when they do show up, they don’t always appear in the same form as they did initially. Nowhere is this constant string of evolution more evident than in the titular villain for my first big choice on the countdown, C.B.

In the original “Starlight Express,” C.B. is the name given to the Red Caboose of the model railway the whole story takes place on. The play is inspired by “Thomas the Tank Engine,” and C.B. seems to be this universe’s version of the Spiteful Brakevan or the Troublesome Trucks: he’s a piece of rolling stock whose greatest delight is causing chaos by forcing trains to crash and wreck. The big difference is that C.B. is a very manipulative and duplicitous character: for much of the show, he actually seems like a fairly decent guy…but suddenly it’s revealed he’s arguably the most evil character in the entire play, showing sadistic glee and wicked pride in his many “achievements” as he dances and sings his own praises. He’s always able to get away with his villainous deeds because no one ever suspects that the sweet, humble, cheerful red caboose at the back of the train could be responsible for sending engines plummeting off bridges, or forcing them into head-on collisions, or running right into the waiting traps of train robbers. In short, C.B. is a psychopath.

He also doesn’t always appear in the show. As the years have gone by, various productions of “Starlight Express” across the globe sometimes keep C.B. and sometimes don’t. And even when they do, his role isn’t always the same: sometimes he’s a fairly minor character, rather than one of the main antagonists. In the most recent version I’m aware of, C.B. is replaced with a new character - an oil tanker named Slick - who even sings their big villain song with some changed lyrics (and a different title, "Wide Smile, High Style"). It’s not surprising why this character is so infrequent, since Starlight Express is - to be perfectly honest - kind of an “overstuffed” show. The plot is pretty simple, and I think it overcompensates (and overcomplicates) things by throwing tons and tons of characters, subplots, and so forth into the mix that don’t always gel. I will say though, I think that of the major antagonists in the play, C.B. is the one I’m the most interested in, and he gets - in my humble opinion - the most fun villain song out of all of them.

Tomorrow, the countdown continues with Number 30!