Okay first things first. The connection to video games here is tenuous at best, and technically we are talking more of a 'musical happening,' rather than a Broadway song & dance extravaganza, but that's just nitpicking now isn't it. According to a story on the BBC's site, next year London's O2 arena will play host to the debut of Star Wars: A Musical Journey. A joint project by LucasFilm and composer John Williams, Star Wars: A Musical Journey is a live take on the 2005 DVD of the same name. In it the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will play a live score as excerpts from the six films are shown on a mega screen.
Tying the visual parts and pieces together will be a series of live narrators, and uhm, maybe a few lightsaber duels and Force blasts as well? Mmmmm, difficult to see.

In the digital age where electronic and thin are in, this sort of larger than life, acoustic affair isn't necessarily up everyone's alley, and frankly that's a shame. This program reminds me of two things, the glory days of the modern blockbuster, during which the original Star Wars movies, along with other musically impressive 70's titans like Rocky and Jaws were king, and marching band. Yup, there was a time when high school music directors, anxious to own halftime and field competitions, couldn't lay off trying their hands, and those of their students at replicating, in musical sense, the events of that galaxy, far, far away. That time has apparently come again, only this time around I'm quite certain that a better-trained padawan than myself will be on spit valve duty.

The show starts in early April '09 in London and will almost certainly tour as well. Will this Journey make it to the farthest reaches of the outer rim that you call home? Patience. Time will tell. All I know is that my Mother-in-law has symphony tickets and I'm feeling pretty good about my chances.

--Hobson's Choice

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