Musical set to roll

"They should be seen and not heard," goes the old adage about children. But for the band in Andrew Lloyd Webber's roller-racing musical Starlight Express, the proverb is turned on its head: the musicians are heard but not seen. At the New Theatre, where Starlight is making a return visit over Christmas, the band is hidden under the stage, rather than being placed in the orchestra pit. It's perhaps a wise precaution - even though the performers are rigorously trained, someone could accidentally end up flying into the pit.

"They have four weeks at skate school, before they learn even a note of the music," explained musical director Dave Rose. "And the great thing about Starlight is that there is over 20 years of experience involved - the original creative team is still working with the show."

But what happens if someone does accidentally hurtle off in the wrong direction?

"If they decide to skate off the front of the stage," Dave said, "There's not a lot I can do about it, except laugh and carry on. But seriously, it has happened, and there is always the danger. I think the ones who have it the hardest are the soloists, particularly the leading lady. She has to do these really energetic dance movements, then all of a sudden she has to stop, and sing a really slow ballad without running out of breath. They all make it look easy, but I wouldn't want to be doing it myself."

Buried under the stage, Dave and his fellow musicians are reliant on TV monitors to keep in touch with the action up above. But that's not the show's only challenge for the musical director.

"A good musical director is clear, and to the point. There is no messing about. Unlike, say, an opera conductor, you're not always working with people who are trained musicians. If you give a really flowery upbeat, the band will know what you're on about, but the non-musicians won't. The minute you start waffling, that's when things start going a bit wrong."

For Dave Rose, Starlight's Oxfordshire Christmas visit is very much a homecoming - his progression to the position of musical director began at his Witney home when he was just six years old.

"My parents felt it would be a really good idea if I had piano lessons. My sister had them as well: I took to it, and she didn't. I really enjoyed it, once I could start playing the things I wanted to play. Then you're away.

"Even then I liked pop, and the show tunes that were coming out at the time. My parents also brought me to the pantos that were staged here at the Apollo, as it was called then. The first musical I saw, also at the Apollo, was the Bill Kenwright production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I was absolutely blown away by it, I just couldn't get enough of it. It was such a warm show to watch. I still think it's one of the best introductions to theatre that children can have."

It now seems inevitable that Dave Rose would go on to work for several years on that very same production of Joseph. But that was still some way off. At the age of 11, while at Wood Green School, Witney, he switched from piano to trombone: "once my arms were long enough".

"Playing trombone means that you can get into bands, it's a really social thing to do," Dave added. "Over the years I played in the county youth big band, the wind band, and went to music school on Saturday mornings - I did that for years. Oxfordshire has a really great music service."

Dave also appeared on stage, with Witney Amateur Dramatic Society.

"Bizarrely enough, the first thing I did was a production of Joseph," Dave laughed. "When I was 11, they needed someone to play Benjamin. It must have been in 1988, somewhere around then. I was hooked. Once you see how theatre works, see people making shows, you realise all the stuff that goes on. It was a bit like a drug for me, I just wanted to get more of it.

"In those days they wouldn't let you join properly until you were 15 or 16 - I was just gutted that I couldn't be in more productions. But they let me come and work backstage, or front of house selling programmes and sweets. You soon build up quite a good knowledge of how things work."

Dave went on to study at the Welsh College of Music and Drama, and Bath Spa University College. Then it was out into the real world of the professional musician. His first job, almost inevitably, involved deputising on keyboards for the very same Kenwright touring production of Joseph that he'd first seen in Oxford. So he set out from Witney to drive to the Sunderland Empire.

"I had to buy myself a load of keyboards and programme them all up. All of a sudden, I needed to get to grips with the technology. I had to get to Sunderland for a matinee, and I had no idea where it was. I looked at the map and thought: Oh, it's right up there, it's practically in Scotland!' I left at about five in the morning in my little Seat, on a foggy, cold November day. When I got there, well, when you come from Oxfordshire, Sunderland is not the greatest place! It was a real eye-opener, I felt a million miles away from home.

"And there was another surprise when I got to Sunderland. They said: Oh, by the way, it's actually the assistant musical director chair, so you will need to conduct the show from time to time'. The first time I conducted was at the Sheffield Lyceum, and I was absolutely petrified. The musical supervisor for Bill Kenwright at the time was a very scary man, although we're great friends now. Sometimes you'd be called up to his room in the interval, and it would be: What the hell do you think you're doing with my show, it's all too fast'. Or perhaps it would be too slow. But that's how you learn!"

Starlight Express - the 3rd Dimension continues at the New Theatre, Oxford, until January 5. Tickets: 0870 607 7484 or www.newtheatreoxford.org.uk