THE STAR WARS COME OUT AT DISNEY HALL
The force of the LA Phil is definitely with you. When Star Wars in Concert began last night, fittingly, with the iconic “Star Wars (Main Theme)”, it filled Disney Hall with a palpable excitement (so did the deep-note sound of the THX trailer). The crowd roared and cheered as if for a returning hero. It was an amazing experience to hear a packed house respond so enthusiastically to a piece of orchestral music. This is part of the magic, but the real star of the evening is John Williams’s legendary score and the stunning orchestrations.
Everything about the concert, which runs through Sunday, is done on an epic scale. You can’t help but get swept up in it all. There are hundreds of people involved. An 86-piece orchestra is combined with a huge choir from Cal State Fullerton — in the first half of the program — with a gigantic screen hovering over the players, on which the extraordinarily clean clips were projected (this means less seats are available due to the configuration, so don’t dawdle getting tix).
After the theme song came to an end, Anthony Daniels (who played C3PO, and the only actor to appear in all nine Star Wars films) was introduced, and the fans went nuts. Daniels immediately began narrating the over-arching story of Star Wars, not as if it were some fairytale or fiction, but as if it were a real story with real people. Looking quite dapper, Daniels is the perfect choice for this role, as his humor and enthusiasm provides the connecting point between the audience, the orchestra and the clips from the movie. While Daniels’s narration, written by Jamie Richardson, is infused with the occasional quip, it never droned on too long and was (almost) never cheesy. And Daniels was a perfect gentleman when he accidentally spoke some narration out of place, acknowledged his mistake like a pro, and went right back to work.
Anthony Daniels
Each number of the evening is accompanied by a themed segment looking at each aspect of the Star Wars Saga including the story of Anakin and his transformation into Darth Vader, Pod Racing, Droids, Luke and Leia, Yoda, The Death Star, The Rebel Alliance triumph over the Empire, Vader’s redemption, and more. I liked that each segment focused on a specific aspect of the saga. The biggest benefactors of this style of presentation are the three prequels; divorced from some of their baggage (c’mon, Jar Jar Binks?!) they really shine. I found a real sense of fondness for the core story.
The film montages combined clips edited by Jeremy Stuart and Adam Witt (including original character concept drawings) to fit the music from all nine Star Wars movies, often interspersing segments from the original series with the three prequels using revised footage. The occasional clip had the sound from the film, usually featuring one of the many legendary quotes. Personally, I found that distracting from the music, but fortunately, it was rarely done.
All this fun is put up against the seriousness that makes Star Wars a piece of nostalgia that spans generations. Williams makes many nods to centuries past in his celebrated Star Wars score: the beefed-up orchestra à-la-Mahler; the sweeping lines of Puccini, the leitmotifs of Wagner. George Lucas pulls from the old stories of heroes, mythology, and good-versus-evil — the same source materials that gave us Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Handel’s operas about Roman Emperors, and Harry Potter.
The result, at least for me, was that I found myself completely immersed. My eyes wandered between the screen and the members of the orchestra, and I marveled at how making these films was such a staggering team effort. I did, a few times, have to shield my eyes from the screen. So amazing was the reconstruction of footage that it was hard to concentrate on the players of the LA Phil, one of the world’s greatest orchestras, showing off why they are considered just that.
Sarah HicksIt was refreshing to note the differences in the crowd at Disney Hall last night from the usual audience that attends the LA Phil’s symphonic fare. For Star Wars in Concert, there were a few costumes floating around the lobby — Darth Vader, a small Wookie, a nondescript Jedi — and I noticed some swaying light sabers from the balconies during the performance. At one point, conductor Sarah Hicks, whose résumé of Pops concerts is enormous and includes regular spots at the Hollywood Bowl, began tapping her podium when Daniels — seemingly improvising — was going on a little too long about his character C-3PO. Hicks also changed into starry, sparkly pants after intermission.
All I can do is hope that newcomers to the LA Phil will understand that an orchestral experience isn’t just for the elite. Every seasoned symphony attendee knows the thrill of hearing music played live, but there are few tunes more beloved among contemporary culture than the ones Williams wrote for Star Wars, and that familiarity is an invaluable stepping stone on the way to appreciating the prowess of the LA Phil. I guarantee there are no sound systems in the world that can replicate what you’ll hear at Disney Hall.
Star Wars in Concert
Los Angeles Philharmonic; Sarah Hicks, conductor
Friday, November 22, at 8
Saturday, November 23 at 2
Sunday, November 24 at 2
for tickets, visit LAPhil.com.