‘Nobody realised how serious it was’: the tragic story of Starlight Express’s original star

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1984 train musical Starlight Express has come steaming back into London and, says the Telegraph’s Chief Theatre Critic Dominic Cavendish, “is out of this world”. The show’s creators are equally delighted, but there is a bittersweet element to seeing new performers inhabit these familiar roles, notes lyricist Richard Stilgoe, since one of Starlight’s talented original cast, the glamorous actress Stephanie Lawrence, left us far too soon while on track for stardom.

Lawrence played Pearl: a first-class observation car, ambitious entrant in the show’s big race, and dream girl of steam engine Rusty. It was one of several major lead roles in her stellar career, along with Eva Perón in Lloyd Webber’s Evita, Mrs Johnstone in Blood Brothers, and Marilyn Monroe in a musical about the Hollywood star. But, like Monroe, Lawrence died shockingly young: aged just 50, after long bouts of depression and addiction, with the cause of death given as “alcoholic liver disease” on her death certificate.

Stilgoe sees her imprint on Starlight Express still. “There is something about creating a role, particularly one in a show that then goes on for 40 years,” he says. “Stephanie was the first and there will always be something of her in Pearl.”

That initial cast had to take a leap of faith, Stilgoe admits. “It’s a very odd thing to ask someone: to pretend to be a pretty first-class carriage, to sing and roller skate, and get the audience to care what happens to you. Stephanie was wonderful at that. She had this combination of strength and vulnerability, and she found an autonomy, even though Pearl relies on these big bullying engines to pull her about [in the race]. They gave her a pretty pink costume with a ponytail – she looked like a My Little Pony – but she transcended it.”

They cast Lawrence early on in the process, he recalls. “Andrew already knew her. It helps if you can arrive in an audition room with Evita in your back pocket. And she was a proper old-school trouper.”

Indeed, Lawrence was born into a theatrical family in 1949, and grew up on Hayling Island in Hampshire. Her father George was a band leader and her mother Gladys ran children’s dance troupe the Kent Babes. Lawrence attended the Arts Educational School in Tring, where ballet was her first love. She joined the corps of the Royal Festival Ballet, but was forced to take a year out due to pneumonia aged 15. 

She switched tack and made her 1971 West End debut in Peter Nichols’s Forget-Me-Not Lane, in which she played an eye-popping sexual fantasy, Miss 1940, who both tap-danced and roller-skated.

However, it was the Argentinian diva who put Lawrence on the map. In 1981 she took over from Marti Webb as Eva Perón in Evita, a role which made use of her bountiful gifts: her powerful voice, dramatic intelligence, and steely determination.

In 1983 she starred as Marilyn Monroe in Mort Garson and Jacques Wilson’s Marilyn! The Musical. The show was poorly received, but reviewers felt Lawrence was its saving grace. The Stage’s Peter Hepple said her “remarkably vibrant performance” established her “as an international leading lady.”

That meant she came into Starlight Express as one of the recognisable names, compared to newcomers like 18-year-old Frances Ruffelle, who played Dinah (and who went on to play the original Éponine in Les Misérables). “I was in awe of her,” remembers Ruffelle. “I was with all the other girls and she had the star dressing room – she was very much a separate entity.”

Stilgoe was thrilled by how Lawrence enriched his work. “There are lots of performers who have been to stage school and come out confident and brassy. That’s fine – but you want a voice that brings you the moonlight. Stephanie got to the heart of a number. She sang it with truth so that you felt everything with her. People who can do that are very rare and special.”

Lawrence was also highly professional, says Ruffelle. “She was on every night, and she never had a bad show.” Stilgoe concurs: “She set the example for everyone else. Show business is a funny thing: you often have to put your own vulnerabilities into a character, but without that affecting your job.”

Although she wasn’t aware of Lawrence’s issues at the time, looking back Ruffelle says that she was “probably going through a lot. I did think she wasn’t a happy person, even though she was so talented and beautiful. It’s interesting how we can watch someone on stage and think they’re amazing, and not realise what’s happening in their private life. They call it ‘Doctor Theatre’: you just get out there and channel your emotions into the part.”

Ruffelle regrets that, as she was so young, she “didn’t have the capacity to recognise Stephanie’s struggles – I never asked questions. Back then we didn’t talk about mental health. When I heard later that she’d died, it was just heartbreaking.” 

Ruffelle did see Lawrence having some physical issues during Starlight: “She was gaining and losing weight the whole year in vast differences. I wonder now if alcohol was involved. And sometimes she seemed quite low. But nobody realised how serious it was.”

In 1990 Lawrence played Mrs Johnstone – a desperate working-class mother who gives up one of her twin babies – in Willy Russell’s stirring musical Blood Brothers, and she was Tony-nominated when she reprised the role on Broadway. The New York Times’s Frank Rich compared Lawrence’s clarion, belting voice with Elaine Paige, while Playbill’s Andrew Gans was deeply moved by her collapsing onstage “in a sea of tears” during the climax. 

Lawrence spoke about having a personal connection to the show, “because I grew up in and around the working class.” She compared Mrs Johnstone to her own mother, who used to “have the bailiffs at the door and my father would be running out the back door”. But Lawrence, who was a tireless grafter, added: “I don’t entirely believe that your status in life depends on the class you were born into. That doesn’t mean you cannot become something special.” 

However, she was left exhausted by playing the demanding role six days a week for four years. Then her big West End comeback, in 1998, taking over the role of Grizabella in Cats, was halted when she fell down a staircase and sustained critical injuries. 

In September 2000 she seemed to find romantic joy at least, marrying her lifelong friend Laurie Sautereau. But just two months later, on November 4, she was found dead in their Fulham home by her new husband.   

Since her death was so sudden, it was looked into by the Fulham and Hammersmith coroner’s office. Following a post-mortem, they released a statement on November 7 saying that there would not be an inquest since there were no suspicious circumstances: Lawrence had died of natural causes relating to liver disease.

“It was a terrible shock,” recalls Stilgoe. “I had no idea that there were these problems. To some extent I feel guilty – I ought to have known or helped her. But somebody has to ask for support.” Wondering what Lawrence might have gone on to do, he immediately says the word “Sondheim”. “Just think about her playing those incredible women with life experience. I can hear her singing Losing My Mind. She should be up there in our estimation with Elaine Paige and Patti LuPone.”

As he now watches the current Pearl, Kayna Montecillo, making her professional debut in Starlight Express, Stilgoe says he’s transported back to 1984 “and watching Stephanie turn Pearl into this character who gets stronger and stronger as the show goes on. That is the great legacy she’s left for us all.”

Starlight Express is booking until June 2025. Info: starlightexpresslondon.com