Original London Design[]
In the original London production, Joule was a slinky red and silver truck with a white bib, the train equivalent to Bombalurina in Cats. This was in keeping with her designation as an "Animal Truck". The white bib emphasises her bust, as well as giving the suggestion of a feline bib. Her silver leggings are a detail coded in the Starlight Express designs as bare flesh (for example, also seen on Greaseball's arms and torso) meaning she is wearing only a high-cut leotard. Her wig is large and fluffy, originally three-toned white at her face, red, and black at the centre back. Gradually this developed to more white with less black, eventually ending patterned white with red stripes as the German design. However the London costume design never gave Joule a smaller wig.
Broadway Design[]
Joule's costume design was given a complete overhaul for the Broadway production. No longer was she an Animal Truck, but re-designated as a Dynamite Truck. There are few similarities between her two looks, beyond the colouring of the wig and general features such as her clean-cut, sleek lines.
Dynamite Truck Joule has a tanker-influenced shoulder box, with curved ends. Her box says "Liquid NitroGycerin". Unusually, Joule's costume design does not include a visible belt, however the practicalities of the choreography require her to have it hidden underneath her leotard. The actresses wear black skates. Out of all female components, Joule's outfit is said to be the most comfortable.
The US/UK Tours costume has remained true to the Broadway design, however the stark contrast between the silver metallic squared and her dark navy base show the wear to the costume quickly. Without constant maintenance, Joule looks worn out and shabby.
Wigs and Makeup[]
Broadway Design, 1986
While Joule's German costume has remained essentially unaltered since 1988, her wig has undergone constant development. The Broadway design calls for a severe, angular crop, white-blonde with red streaks. However this design developed, with Joule sporting a high braid at the back, which looked almost unaltered from the front but gave more movement when dancing; she has worn longer hair styled up into flames, which also included UV-reactive paint; her hair has been long and loose, not dissimilar to the London style; but most recently her style has been a fauxhawk, styled up into a crest similar to Electra's, but without the shaved sides. By 2014 her wig reached below her waist, giving her length of hair to rival Pearl.
Wig: Joule (along with Volta) might have the fanciest wig of all the carriages. Her main colour is white, with red and silver. At the beginning, her hair was very short with only small, red stripes, the sides combed into the back and the front styled up. It slowly got longer, but still was rather plain, compared to the other female characters. In the late 2000's her hair very quickly made a huge change, getting longer each year and being styled into curls, a braid and finally a mohawk. At the moment, her hair is longer than Electra's, usually reaching her hips. The colour changed too, the red became much more dominant, as the stripes got broader and the middle part being red, too. Additionally she got sparkly, silver stripes in between the red ones. Her hair is very similar to Electra's, even though not as tall (how could she dare?) and much more curled in the front. The main difference is that the mohawk isn't added onto a base, but directly styled from her roots.
Make-Up: Joule does have the white facepaint, too, but over time it got a lot lighter, making her facecolour look more human-like than the other components'. The edges are very sharp and straight. The only colour is glittery red, which is and has been used for her eyes, contouring and lips. She has extremely long lashes, too. Joule's only-red styling is the perfect counterpart to Volta's only-blue, differing them from the other three.
For the Bochum production's 30th anniversary in 2018, Joule's wig reverted to a retro look, back to the short, angular crop seen in early years. Make-up decreasing in boldness, losing the white or pale base entirely to fit into the new production's aim of seemingly making all the makeup natural within the show. Her sharp angular lines on her cheeks being replaced with a line a thick concentrated blush and her eye look changing to look a similar shape to that of the coaches, loosing the glitter, enormous eyelashes in place of more natural black lashes.
Joule's makeup design is one of the most iconic and distinctive looks in the show. She has strong, angular lines over a pale base, lots of red glitter, and enormous eyelashes.
Progression of Joule's Wig Design
Makeup Stage By Stage
