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One-Man Star Wars Trilogy in Chicago
Apparently the One Man, Charles Ross, was a hit at the Vancouver and Toronto Fringe Festivals in 2002. Now he's in Chicago until January 3, 2004. I took my girlfriend for her birthday, a little nervous because she's a theatre snob and a huge Star Wars geek; luckily this production satisfied her on both counts. Coming onstage all in black, with elbow pads (he has many occasions to throw himself to the ground) he sings/hums the music, does all the special effects and sound effects, and acts all the parts. Skeptical? A reviewer who saw him in Toronto said "If George Lukas [sic] could see this, he'd rediscover the secret lost in the two most recent films: that it's imagination -- and not computer driven imagery -- which made the original Star Wars so great." I couldn't agree more: every scene he performed was brilliantly evocative of the original, and the audience -- on this second night of the run, a mix of hard-core fans and newspaper reviewers with press kits -- never ceased to be surprised at how spot-on he was, the whole way through. Other reviews raved about his "energy", which I feared would mean he was like my first roommate, a huge Star Wars fan but also way too energetic for me and didn't use deodorant. But his energy just kept the show moving along and by the end his sweat showed that the choreography of the visual effects was not easy.
Every article about the show says that Mr. Ross has seen the Trilogy "over 500 times", and his performance leaves little room for doubt on this point, but those who have also seen it as many times may find a few quibbles -- every now and then, reciting a memorable line, he changes it just a little, which would sometimes break my immersion in the world he created, but only for a moment. It did take a little time to get warmed up to him, but at 20 minutes per movie, he gets up to speed fast, so by the time he had Luke sullenly watching the double sunset on Tatooine, I -- and the rest of the audience -- was putty in his hands.
I highly recommend that anyone in the Midwest take a chance on this show. It's only an hour long, so if you're a total loser who hates it, you won't be stuck there for as long as you were stuck in The Phantom Menace. And, don't worry, the prequels never come up in the show: this is only the Real Star Wars."
I saw a show just l like this in London.. a two man re-enactment of all of Shakespeare's plays done very rapidly. This was very funny. I wonder who started this genre? Maybe bards used to sing the Illiad super fast to entertain each other?
It's hard to imagine one guy on stage singing "doo-dooo-da-da-da-deeeee-dooo-da-da-da-deeeee-doo o..." and reciting "Luke, I am your father," being at all decent.
.torrent to prove me wrong?
This has got to be a joke, right?
Anyone have a
Frederic Martin gave a one-man live radio show parody of both Star Wars Prequel movies, on the regional french radio OuiFM. This guy has a thousand different voices, and he sings very well. And the result was a lot, lot more enjoyable than the original. He also did the same with Spiderman, XMen, Xmen2, XXX, XXX2, Star Trek, Daredevil, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, UFO Robot Grendizer, the Fantastic Four, The Jungle Book, Matrix Reloaded, Austin Powers: the Spy who shagged me, Men in Black, the Bible (!), Air Force One, Gladiator, etc...
If you understand fast-spoken slang French, you can find them on emule with the keyword "LMDMF".
Maybe we deserve this world ?
The name "Reduced Shakespeare Company" (RSC) is itself kind of a spoof on the well-known Royal Shakespeare Company (also RSC). I also saw the show in London and highly recommend it. I heard when I saw it that they had done a tour of the US the year before, so maybe they will come back across the pond sometime soon.
I was one of the fortunate few who saw Star Drek , a musical takeoff featuring funny songs, nailed characterizations and cheesy special effects. The transporter beam, for example, was a handful of glitter tossed in the air under a spotlight. The show ran about a year and a half (94-95) before Paramount shut it down. Act one was the original series, act two was the next gen, with Q bringing Kirk forward in time on a bet with Picard that Kirk would be better able to cope with a plot to addict the crew to a traditional Romulan beverage called "jav-ya."
...another culture has been destooooyyyyed,
The night I saw it in Seattle the place was completedly packed, people sitting on stairs. Except there was a block of really good empty seats in one row. As the lights went down, four hooded figures shuffled in and sat in the seats. During Intermission they left, and the host came out and announced that it had been Nimoy and his friends, who were in town for one of his rare convention appearances. They had snuck in so as not to create a scene. The place went nuts.
I still remember parts of the theme song:
On boooooaaard the Enterpriiiiiiiise,
Our paaaaaants don't have any fliiiiiies...
but weeeee know Star Fleet won't be annooooooyyed,
becaaaaause,
We're Right!
Not long afterwards Paramount shut the show down on the grounds that it wasn't a parody of Star Trek, it was Star Trek. The producers had to fork over all the money they had made.
Repeat after me:
Paramount is run by soulless, clueless Assholes.
There is an improv show in Chicago called Frodo-A-Go-Go which is supposed to do a parody of LOTR in maybe an hour and a half. It is as bad as the reviewer thought the one man Star Wars was going to be. Although seeing "Giblet" and "Legoland" become transvestites in blond wigs was amusing, the price just isn't worth it.