Star Wars in Concert
Today my dad and I went to see Star Wars in Concert at the Amway Arena, and my god, it was glorious. GLORIOUS. An entire stadium of people who love Star Wars enough to buy tickets to an orchestrated movie montage narrated by Anthony Daniels. It was almost worth the price of admission alone for the opening crawl.
They had props outside the theater for you to look at, which I checked out during intermission. The coolest, in my opinion, were the Chewie suit and Han in carbonite. While I was walking past the display with two Ewok costumes in it, there were two boys up close staring at it, and I heard their father chide them as I walked away: "Come on, you remember how I feel about Ewoks."
I saw people in full Jedi regalia, little children in Jedi costumes, a little girl dressed as Leia in the row in front of me, hundreds of Star Wars shirts, and even a Slave Leia descending the staircase next to me. It was fantastic seeing so many happy nerds of all ages and all kinds.
It was amazing. I'm so glad I went. They did a wonderful job of blending clips with the music to tell a condensed version of the entire saga from Episode I to VI. I would not have protested the addition of more Han Solo, but I wouldn't take anything away. The entire arena gave the orchestra a standing ovation; Anthony Daniels was clearly shocked by it. After exclaiming "You really don't want to go home yet!" he asked if we would like to return to the Dark Side, and then we had an encore of the Imperial March!
I am so glad my father dragged my unwilling ten year-old self to the theaters to see the original trilogy's rerelease. He had no idea what an impact that movie would have on my life, and how much I would love it almost fifteen years later.
Thanks, Dad.