Posts Tagged star wars
Star Wars: A Musical Journey
I forgot to post about this at the time, but myself, Paula and Chris went to see Star Wars: A Musical Journey at the O2 Arena in London on April 10th.
Discussions went back and forth about the best way to get down there, who was going, whether we were staying overnight, who was going to look after Evie, etc, etc. At one point, it was turning into a mini family holiday, with my mum and dad coming with us to look after Evie while we attended the concert, us all stopping in a hotel overnight, then coming back the following day. In the end, Evie stayed at home and my folks looked after her, while Paula, Chris and I went to the concert by car, mainly because that was the easiest and (more importantly) the cheapest option. The 8+ hours of driving weren’t ideal, and we didn’t get back home until around 2:30am, but I coped better than I thought I would. The tiredness that I was expecting didn’t hit me until the following afternoon.
The concert itself was excellent. Anthony Daniels (yes, that Anthony Daniels*) was the narrator, and introduced the various musical sequences. While the orchestra was playing these, clips from the six Star Wars films were shown on a large video screen behind the orchestra. Some of the clips were silent, while others had dialogue and sound effects. Certain sequences worked better than others, but there’s nothing quite like seeing an orchestra and choir in full flow, especially when performing music that you know and love. Oh, and there were frikkin’ laser beams too!
We saw a couple of famous faces there (famous in Star Wars circles, at any rate): Warwick Davies (Wicket the Ewok) and Jeremy Bulloch (the guy in the Boba Fett costume). The only bummer from my point of view was that George Lucas apparently turned-up on the second night, hence we missed him. :O(
* Mr C-3PO, for the uninitiated.
One-Man Star Wars Trilogy
Myself, Paula, Chris and Mum went to see the One-Man Star Wars Trilogy at the Chester Gateway Theatre on Friday night. Canadian actor Charles Ross basically condenses the original trilogy (New Hope, Empire, Jedi) into one hour, playing all of the characters (Jabba the Hutt and Admiral Ackbar were my favourites!), humming the music, making the sound effects, throwing himself around on stage like a lunatic doing the spacecraft… you get the idea. No props, no sets, just this one guy.
It was bloody fantastic!
Really funny, probably moreso for the big Star Wars geeks, but I think that most people know the general story beats anyway so it would go down well with any audience. The capacity crowd (350 people?) at the Gateway certainly appreciated it!
The other cool thing was that as this was his last performance on the UK tour they had some people there from one of the costuming fan groups, dressed as stormtroopers, biker scouts, Jedi Knights… even Vader and the Emperor. The costumes were really impressive. Oh, and they had a remote control Artoo there as well! How cool is that?!
Apparently he (Charles Ross, not Artoo, duh) is due to appear in London sometime later this year. If you get the chance to go and see his show, then do: I guarantee you’ll enjoy it 
Han gets to shoot first (again)
So it seems as though Mr Lucas has had a change of heart, and that we will be getting the original theatrical versions of the Star Wars movies on DVD after all, come September. A response to overwhelming fan demand, or a means of generating cash for George’s next project? You decide. Will I be buying them anyway? You’re damn right I will!
I’m kind of ambivalent about the whole Special Edition thing anyway: there’s stuff I like, and stuff I don’t. Read the rest of this entry »