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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."
LOL, I used this subject before :)~~
Please let me get the FP god!
The classic essay on "worse is better" is either misunderstood
whats going on in this sunday morning
...everything is better than the original thing since Ep1, Ep2 and certainly Ep3.
All thanks to George Lucas and the "CG" labeled crackpipe in his hand.
No doubt his relatives -- after being subjected to little Charlie's performances every holiday dinner, year after year -- put up the money to produce this show.
At least it gets him out of the house ;-)
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
His name wasn't Ghyslain was it?
...the Puppetry of the Penis guys didn't think of this first.
"Is that supposed to be...Jabba?! Oh man *retch*"
RW
Chicago is Midwest now? I must have missed something here...
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?
I find myself wondering at the validity of that statement for about 5 seconds.
Quite how one could be both a theare snob and star wars - ahen - person - entirely slips my well defined features.
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
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
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. im glad you got laid
8====D (_(_) <--- Taco's ASS
Instead it was a thrilling hour of this guy jumping around reenacting Star Wars and doing voices and it was wonderful, and he brought the whole audience along.
Seriously, start dating.
Are you intolerant of intolerant people?
neighborhood? no need to travel to chicago to sense which way the wwwinds of change are bullowing?
there'll also never be a better time to investigate the creators' newclear power, & planet/population rescue initiatives.
this stuff is unbreakable, wwworks on several (more than 3) dimensions, & there's never a liesense feechurn/cover charge to restrict yOUR progress.
the daze of the greed/fear/ego based felonious payper liesense ?pr? ?firm? hypenosys stock markup fraud execrable, is WANing into coolapps/the abyss, at the (increasing) speed of right.
talk about pressure? those fauxking foulcurrs on wall street of deceit/capitollist hill, are having a whoreabull time attempting to hide the news (buy use of phonIE scriptdead ?pr? ?firm? hypenosys) of their felonious payper liesense billyonerrors' latest softwar gangster hostage taking attempts, &/or the adolescent dictator megalomania of the georgewellian fuddites/walking dead perpetraitors of the greed/fear/ego based life0cide against humankind.
there's a real risk of overheating (peacing off) the main processor. you don't want that?
for each of the creators' innocents harmed, there is a badtoll that must/will be repaid by you/US, as the aforementioned walking dead will not be available to make reparations, when the big flash occurs.
the lights are coming up now. consultations are in order. you know where to look/who to trust? see you there? tell 'em robbIE? tell 'em how well the updated PostBlock(tm) devise is not working?
One Man And His Mare (as Chewbacca).
See fellows, when you lose the proverbial big "V" you'll find this whole concept quite asinine, so enjoy it while you can guys. No wait, this is slashdot, you'll never get laid, except if your LAN party group joins the "other" team...
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 ?
@leased it seems that way with the corepirate nazi /.puppeteers, & their whoreabully infactdead PostBlock(tm) 'moderation' devise.
more&more pretending is their idea of 'stuff that matters'?
All right, based on the good Commander's review, I'll bite. I'm going to be in Chicago next month, and since my neice lives there, maybe I can get advance tickets. Nobody who wasn't there can know what it was like to be ten years old in 1977 and watching Star Wars on the big screen. It sounds like Charles Ross has recaptured some of the magic. Lucas has certainly lost it. It can't possibly be any worse than what my family has put up with from me (Star Wars lines-wise) for the past 26 years.
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.
Will this show be visiting other cities? I can't get to Chicago right now, but would love to see this show.
Thanks for bringing back news for nerds...it doesn't get nerdier than this!
satisfied her on both counts
1) That's spelled without 'o'. "CUNT".
2) A girl gas only one of those. The other is called 'asshole'.
Lack of experience is no excuse for such lacks in theoretical knowledge.
Take the train back home. Get home about 4 in the morning. My kid is a night owl.
Any other suggestions?
with a DV camera? ;P
With all the attention he's getting, why wouldn't he just go on tour with it? A one man show needs what...three people to prepare every night? It could probobly be done with just two. I bet most people here would go see him if he came to your home town. This guy should think about it...
There was that petition and stuff and all... Did they put SWK in Episode 3?
Thou faileth it! Goeth sucketh a knave, thou grab-knobbed one, thou!
I can't be the only geek who saw the quote from George Lukas [sic], and thought it would have been fun to write sik instead
I saw this show at the Vancouver Fringe Festival. It's awesome, if you go to see it, believe me you won't be disappointed.
At the festival, the show sold out most of its performances, then sold out its "pick of the fringe" shows which is reserved for the best of the plays, and was held over again (not sure if it sold out there).
Charles Ross goes through the entire 3 movies, does a fantastic job of reenacting the battle scenes (yes without any props) and touches on all the aspects of the trilogy, including all the jokes we throw around here at slashdot.
Even if you're not a big Star Wars fan, the guy's performance is something to see. Oh and, it's not the kind of boring "theater" you might be thinking of.
And he probably told his family that after he's done with the Star Wars trilogy theater version, he's gonna tackle the Lord of the Rings trilogy one-hour theater play, and then he'll do The Matrix trilogy one-hour version (this is where his slow-mo special effects stunt work will shine).
And then they probably kicked him and his computers straight out of the basement, "By God, we told you that you wouldn't live at home forever, no matter how much of a nerd you think you are! We found you an apartment and we'll pay the rent, just get out and take your caffeinated beverages with you!"
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.
Well, not exactly, but I know where he got the idea from.
I saw this two summers ago on my campus at the University of Toronto during the Fringe Festival.
This is not Star Wars Kid, I assure you. I thought it was one of the funniest things I had ever seen. Fucking amazing! I'm hoping for some DVD of his performance to be released...
My brother and I went and were laughing more than anyone else, because this guy seemed to latch on to all the tiny little things that we always laugh at, the number one being in Jedi -- when Vader's trying to lure Luke out and says "Sistaaaaaaaaa"
When he imitates the AT-AT falling down, or the X-Wings crashing into the walls, when he does Yoda-with-ass-in-air digging through Luke's stuff, the Yoda death music, everything was dead on.
This has been done, and to equally thrilled audiences, by the Star Wars In 30 Minutes guys, who started at USC and premiered at Edinburgh's Fringe Festival (in a galaxy far, far away from George Lucas's lawyers). I saw it when it was in LA last year and it was hilarious.
Dog is my co-pilot.
Quite aside from being legally questionable and ethically bankrupt, isn't C&D-ing Shoggoth On The Roof a bit...risky? I mean, I sure wouldn't be reading the response from the Old Ones' legal team. (Does anyone doubt that the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred, J.D., would be drafting counsel?)
For a taste of the horror that awaits these litigious fools, check out this 401 page from yog-sothoth.com ...
Software is not supposed to be about how to work around a useability issue. - Ken Barber
There was a show called Star Wars in 30 Minutes that played here in Los Angeles for a few months last year. Hysterical, and they run through the entire original trilogy in, yes, 30 minutes. I saw it twice and it was great. More than just one guy, but most of the cast plays multiple roles -- Threepio is also Yoda, Chewie is also Vader, Ackbar is also Jabba, Luke's tauntaun, and several other characters.
The props were hilarious -- folding chairs with lights on the feet were X-wings (held up in front of the actors' faces), Artoo was a trash can, and the aerial on the bottom of Cloud City that Luke catches onto was... a TV aerial. Ha!
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
Though a lifetime computer geek I have recently returned to active cave exploration, and have gotten to reacquiant myself with old friends that helped me get started caving years ago.
On a recent cave trip, one of them remarked (to the other's wife, who's also a caver) that I had it lucky...that geeks were now totally cool and mainstream, where he and his friend had been geeks when it was definitely NOT cool!
Made me remember when I first knew him (helped him get dates) and snicker.
What about geeks that are also club musicians (narrowly avoided the term "clubbing musicians," whew!)? You have the perfect excuse to go out and meet single women/men: you're supposed to be playing! Worked for me for years *shudder*.
I'm 34 now, married and am sure I have little idea what a life as a Gen-Y geek is like, but it sure looks fun! Party on, little geeks!
I saw his One Man Star Wars in Victoria awhile ago. Liked it so much I went to see it again the next day. I brought my MD recorder, and now have the whole thing on Minidisc. Its perfect, because the whole preformance lasts excactly as long as my bus commute home!
Charles is an old classmate of mine from university. I, too, saw the show in Vancouver, and really enjoyed it. These were my thoughts: Last night I went to the 'Pick of the Fringe' and saw my former classmate Charles Ross use the Force in his excellent One Man Star Wars Trilogy. In an hour, he runs through the essential (and sometimes non-essential) bits of all three movies, pausing twice for drinks of water. It is a remarkably manic performance. He sweats excessively, and never stops moving for the hour. He flies the ships, does all the voices, sings the music and fights the battles. His mimicry is remarkably well-observed. From the gentle heaving of the X-Wing fighters to Yoda's cane work, he gets all of the details right. His rendition of the music is particularly effective, and proves a handy transitional shorthand between scenes. It's like watching an eight-year-old playing in his backyard. When the death stars blow up, Charles skips around the stage making explosion noises like every one of us did in 1983. In short, it's a show worth seeing.
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.
Gene, go home.
One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
I ask, because back in 1997 I was the lighting/sound designer for "Jedi! A Musical Tour De Force", performed at the ImprovOlympic in Chicago.
It was the trilogy, performed in about an hour and a half (if memory serves) with heavy use of models and such to represent space battles and things -- it contained select dialogue from all three movies, and each installment of the trilogy began with the piano player singing an overture featuring the words that scrolled across the screen to open each movie.
Oh, wait. Did I mention it was a MUSICAL? Seriously. Princess Leia's "It's hard to be hard" was a particularly good Disco tune performed by the guy in drag playing Leia (there were women in the show, but not for Leia.)
My particular favorite was Obi Wan's climactic ode to the Force, "Feel The Flow". Feel the flow/feel it from above and below/feel it in every mountain stream/everywhere you go/feel the force/it will never lead you off course...and so on and so on. I actually have the cast recording on a CD-R at home.
So anyway -- the point of all this is, Lucas shut us down with a cease and desist. Hopefully this guy won't suffer the same fate.
Helevius
I don't know abut anyone else, but I am Sooooo over Star Wars. Lucas should have left it at the first 3 movies. If it wasn't for Moulan Rouge, the last two would be at the top of my all time crappiest movie list.
hahahahaha
rofl
hahahaha
No matter where you go, you definitely must order the "stuffed special."
I saw this show in Montreal this past summer during our annual "Fringe Festival". You HAVE to see his impression of an AT-AT getting killed!
I went to see this at the vancouver fringe, expecting a comedy, a parody. But you could count the number of jokes in the script on one hand.
Otherwise, it was a straight readers-digest-condensed re-enactment. The laughs only came from the visual, incredibly energetic, performance. But by halfway, I was bored senseless by this guy leaping about the stage. It was as dull as a room of devout monty python fans reciting "holy grail".
The actor was great, energetic, excellent voice and accents. No amplifier used (or needed) in the small theatre. But the script, or lack of it, is only for serious star-wars fans, or lovers of pure visual gags. There was so much opportunity for parody that went totally wasted. It was almost reverent, as if parody would be sacrilege.
OK, the majority of the audience loved it, just
be warned.
My pick of the festival: "Toothpaste and cigars" - utterly brilliant. Co-written by the director of "one man star wars t.", BTW.
I was able to see this performance last night, which was sponsored by the Onion and BASS beer. My many thanks to the Onion for their nice gifts and to BASS beer for the 'Liquid Force'. :)
My review:
The theater where Mr. Ross performs his piece is surprisingly small and intimate, with probably a maximum of 90 seats---if that many!
The stage is small, maybe 8' x 18' or smaller.
There is only a plain black curtain as the back-drop.
There are no props or anything used for this performance, other than the floor. Mr. Ross wears all-black clothing T-Shirt & pants. The only notable element to his 'costume' are black elbow pads.
There is a bar in the room that serves before, during and after the performance. No one got up to get any drinks during the performance though, because Mr. Ross does his show with absolutely no breaks. Plus---you don't want to miss a second of it!
All of the reviews I read prior to viewing the show are true!
This is definitely worth seeing no matter how big of a Star Wars fan you are. Mr. Ross has distilled the essence of what makes the original trilogy such a classic story.
Not only does Mr. Ross act out the entire OT in one hour (20 minutes per movie), he does in fact play all of the characters, say all of the lines AND incorporate all of the special effects!
With a movement, inflection, gesture or mannerism, you will know exactly which character he is playing at any time.
Luke, Leia, Darth Vader, Uncle Owen, Aunt Beru, Obi Wan, Han, Chewie, C3PO, R2D2, Jawas, Tusken Raiders, Rebel troopers, Stormtroopers, Tarkin, Motti, other Imperial Officers, the Emperor, the entire cast of Rebel Pilots, Mon Mothma and the Rebel leaders, Lando, Nien Numb, Lobot, Boba Fett, Yoda, Jabba the Hutt, Bib Fortuna, Admiral Akkbar, Boussh, Tauntauns, Wampas, Dianogas, Rancors, Ewoks----they are all there! Plus he also most-convincingly reenacts all of the action sequences, saber duels, battle scenes and special effects. He even blows up the Death Star----TWICE! Mr. Ross even pays tribute to the original theatrical release version of the trilogy and doesn't employ any devices from the most recent special edition version.
Mr. Ross performs all three Star Wars movies in one hour. The action is non-stop. The laughter is non-stop. Nearly all of the dialog is straight from the movies with only an occasional humorous extra line thrown in.
I laughed so hard, my armor hurt!
I was wearing my stormtrooper armor for this performance. The Onion had sponsored and promoted last night's performance with a costume event.
How fortunate we are to have this performance in town for the next few weeks (through Jan. 3rd)
Go see it. You will not be disappointed.
TKvanB