Belle's Domain
Starlight Express
Pearl, the Observation Car.
Pearl's the brand new girl on the tracks. She's bubbly, shiny, and exquisitely pretty. Pearl is usually portrayed in one of two ways - either she's very young and sweet, very blonde and ditzy, and she completely fails to realise the conseqiuences of her actions, or she is a soul-searching diva, who thinks hard about her actions, yet chooses to dump Rusty, steal Dinah's boyfriend, and basically hurt everyone she cares for. The former seems younger than the latter. Personally I prefer the interpretation of her being young and foolish, but not intentionally cruel.

Her costume has gone through significant changes since the early 1984 design! In those days, the height of fashion was neon colours on black, so Pearl's first design now seems very dated. Very quickly, tho, she became pale pearly pink with a "tutu" net skirt. All the costumes were re-designed for the Broadway production in 1987, and Pearl became the familiar "OBSERVATION" costume. The "PM" on her skirt apparently stands for "Pullman"... except Pullman is a single word and therefore only has a single initial. Other interpretations include "Prawn Moose" (which is quite an insult!) or "Pearl McCoy". This last makes a lot of sense, if Pearl is Poppa's daughter (no, Poppa is not automatically Rusty's father, everyone calls him Poppa!) it explains why he encourages decent Rusty to beat the very unsuitable potential boyfriends in Greaseball and Electra!

The london Pearl costume became the "OBSERVATION" design in 1992 when Reva Rice came from the US tour to london, bringing her broadway-design costume with her. Each subsequent year in london brought a slightly different design to the costume, until in 1999 when they removed the panel covering her cleavage, resulting in a school-girl influenced costume, her pleated skirt and square neckline being reminiscent of an old-fashioned school gymslip. When Starlight went to Las Vegas in 1993, the coaches' costumes were re-designed to be more in keeping with the "Vegas showgirl" ethic. ie. expose as much flesh as possible. Sweet, innocent ditzy Pearl left, and slut-Pearl replaced her. She has a monogram of "PRR" on her belt, replacing the "PM" on the skirt. Theory is this stands of "Pearl rail road". This costume design has been re-used on the second US tour and now the UK tour. Fortunately the Bochum costume designs have hardly changed since 1988, apart from some magnificent long, pink Pearl wigs. Miria Parvin

Pearl backstage
backstage early london backstage early london backstage early london
Kim Leeson, london Caron Cardelle, london Reva Rice, london
Claudia Bradley, london Claudia Bradley, london Claudia Bradley, london
1994 coaches Amanda Salmon, london Amanda Salmon, london
Danni Kearsley-Wooller, understudy, london Danni Kearsley-Wooller, understudy, london Danni Kearsley-Wooller, understudy, london
Irene Warren, understudy, london Marissa Dunlop, london Danni Kearsley-Wooller, understudy, london
Jo Gibb, london Jo Gibb, london Jo Gibb, london
Jo Gibb, london
Rachel Wooding, Bochum Rachel Wooding, Bochum Rachel Wooding, Bochum
Bochum 2002 Bochum 2002 Bochum 2002
Clarissa Grace, US tour 2003
Nikki Belsher, Japan/Australia tour 1987 Nikki Belsher, Japan tour 1990
Maria Jane Hyde, 1988 Bochum cast

Claudia Bradley, 1990 Bochum cast

Rachelle Rak, 1993 Bochum cast

Reva Rice, 1993 Las Vegas cast

Backstage Bochum 2003 Backstage Bochum 2005 Mannequin in theatre, London 2001

Jane Horn, UK Tour 2004/5 Miria Parvin, UK Tour 2006 Gemma Atkins, UK Tour 2007

Pearl in the News
Stephanie Lawrence, previews, london Stephanie Lawrence, 1984 London Kim Leeson, 1991 London
Marissa Dunlop, 2000 London Marissa Dunlop, 2000 London Jo Gibb, 2002 London
Marissa Dunlop advertising the UK tour, 2004 UK tour flyer 2004 design UK tour flyer 2005 design
Thingywot's 'buy me new skates?' newspaper campaign Anna as Pearl

Pearl Onstage

London
Stephanie Lawrence, london 1984 Stephanie Lawrence, london Stephanie Lawrence, london
Stephanie Lawrence, london Stephanie Lawrence, london Stephanie Lawrence, london
Stephanie Lawrence, london Stephanie Lawrence, london Stephanie Lawrence, london
Stephanie Lawrence, london Stephanie Lawrence, london Stephanie Lawrence, london
1980s london 1980s london 1980s london
1992 london 1992 london 1992 london
1992 london 1992 london 1992 london
1993 london 1994 london 1994 london
1994 london 1994 london 1995 london
1996 london 1996 london 1997 london
1997 london 1997 london 1998 london
1998 london 1999 london 1999 london
1999 london 2000 london 2001 london
2001 london 2001 london

Japan/Australia tours
Japan/Australia tour 1987 Japan/Australia tour 1987 Japan/Australia tour 1987
Japan/Australia tour 1987 Japan/Australia tour 1987 Japan/Australia tour 1987 - racing with BOBO?
Japan/Australia tour 1987 - racing with BOBO? Japan/Australia tour 1987 Japan/Australia tour 1987
Japan tour 1990 Japan tour 1990 Japan tour 1990
Japan tour 1990 Japan tour 1990 Japan tour 1990
Japan tour 1990 Japan tour 1990 Japan tour 1990
Japan tour 1990 Japan tour 1990 Japan/Australia tour 1987

US. Productions
1987 Broadway 1987 Broadway 1987 Broadway
1987 Broadway 1987 Broadway
1989 US tour 1989 US tour 1989 US tour
1993 Las Vegas 1993 Las Vegas 1993 Las Vegas
1993 Las Vegas 1993 Las Vegas 1993 Las Vegas
1993 Las Vegas 1993 Las Vegas
2003 US Tour 2003 US Tour 2003 US Tour
2003 US Tour 2003 US Tour 2003 US Tour
2003 US Tour 2003 US Tour

UK tour
Jane Horn, 2004/5 UK Tour Jane Horn, 2004/5 UK Tour Jane Horn, 2004/5 UK Tour
Jane Horn, 2004/5 UK Tour Jane Horn, 2004/5 UK Tour Jane Horn, 2004/5 UK Tour
Jane Horn, 2004/5 UK Tour
Miria Parvin, UK tour 2006 Miria Parvin, UK tour 2006 Miria Parvin, UK tour 2006
Miria Parvin, UK tour 2006 Miria Parvin, UK tour 2006 Miria Parvin, UK tour 2006
Gemma Atkins, UK tour 2007 Gemma Atkins, UK tour 2007 Gemma Atkins, UK tour 2007
Gemma Atkins, UK tour 2007 Gemma Atkins, UK tour 2007 Gemma Atkins, UK tour 2007

Bochum, Germany
1988 Bochum 1988 Bochum 1988 Bochum
1988 Bochum 1988 Bochum 1988 Bochum
1989 Bochum 1989 Bochum 1989 Bochum
1989 Bochum 1989 Bochum 1991 Bochum
1994 Bochum 1994 Bochum 1994 Bochum
1994 Bochum 1997 Bochum
1997 Bochum 1997 Bochum 1997 Bochum
1998 Bochum 1998 Bochum 2000 Bochum
2000 Bochum 2000 Bochum 2000 Bochum
2002 Bochum 2002 Bochum 2002 Bochum
2004 Bochum 2004 Bochum 2004 Bochum
2004 Bochum 2004 Bochum 2004 Bochum
2004 Bochum 2005 Bochum 2005 Bochum
2005 Bochum 2005 Bochum

Makeup
1994 Bochum
2000 Bochum 2000 Bochum 2000 Bochum
2000 Bochum 2000 Bochum 2005 Bochum
2005 Bochum 2005 Bochum 2005 Bochum

Pearl Fans

AnnaP, London 2001 AnnaP, London 2001 Halloween, London 2001
Halloween, London 2001 Halloween, London 2001 Halloween, London 2001
AnnaP, London 2002 AnnaP, London 2002 Heather, London 2002
Bochum 2001 AnnaB, Bochum 2002 Bochum 2002
Bochum 2002 AnnaP, Bochum 2002 Bochum 2003
Bochum 2003 Bochum 2005 Bochum 2005
Bochum 2006 Bochum 2006 Bochum 2006
Bochum 2006 Bochum 2006

Belle's Pearl costumes
Thingywot, London 2000 Thingywot and AnnaP, London 2000 Thingywot, London 2000
Thingywot, London 2000 Thingywot, London 2000 Thingywot, London 2000
Thingywot, London 2001 Thingywot, London 2001 Thingywot, London 2001
Thingywot, London 2002 Thingywot, London 2002 Thingywot, Bochum 2003
Thingywot, Bochum 2003 Thingywot, Bochum 2003 Thingywot, Bochum 2003