Star Wars In Concert at The Nokia Theater
Wednesday October 7th, 2009
by Josiah Daniel Golojuh
Walking through downtown LA on Wednesday night, one would quickly notice a proliferation of lightsabers, Stormtroopers, and Jedi Knights, but not as many as you might think. They, and a diverse crowd, even by LA’s high standard of diversity, were making their way to the Nokia Theater at LA Live for Star Wars In Concert, and I was more than happy to count myself among them.
Before even entering the theater, I was greeted by the most elelaborate merch stand I have ever seen. It was filled with, among other things, exclusive shirts, mugs, and a holographic poster. After much deliberation, I decided it was too much to spend $40 for a t-shirt that I may never wear in public and in spite of the fact that the poster did not feature Luke Skywalker, I went with the holographic poster.
Upon foolishly attempting to roll it I was stopped by the worried sales person, warning me that if I roll it “the holographicness will crack.”. Fortunately, the poster only became a minor burden as I entered, asked by security,
“Did you get that here?”
I politely replied, “yes,” but inside I was screaming, “of course I bought it here, it is a cumbersome 3-D holographic poster exclusive to this event!” The burden of carrying it increased slightly as I attempted to explore the “exhibits” in the lobby, Chewbacca’s costume, among other equally awesome items of costumage from the films.
Once at my seat the burden was gone, I dumped the poster on the ground and forgot about it. The lights dropped suddenly, in the crowd lightsabers ignited, the Fox Fanfare began, and then, STAR WARS blasted off across the gargantuan screen in that iconic crawl. The live music from a full symphony orchestra (with a choir for a few tunes) swelled throughout the sizable Nokia Theater. That first cavalcade of live music and images took everyone in the audience to another place. Every inch of space was filled with the power and the beauty that is not just the music of Star Wars, but the very brilliance of Star Wars itself.
The event was introed by the voice of James Earl Jones, in character as Darth Vader, and hosted by Anthony Daniels, almost in character as C-3PO. Daniels noted that Star Wars spanned across 6 wonderful films, my companion leaned in and commented, “Well, 3 wonderful films anyway.”
As I looked around at the audience, all taken by the grand emotion of Star Wars, I had to disagree. For the hundreds of kids under 10 years old, those prequel movies are wonderful. They have an irrational and inexplicable love for Jar Jar Binks just as irrational and inexplicable as my love for Ewoks.
I don’t love those new films in that way because I can’t, and that’s okay. Those kids will grow up with a certain magic associated with those films, just as I have for the original trilogy. For those kids they will be holy and untouchable, just as the original trilogy is for me.
I kicked back, endured the prequel heavy first half of the event, and after the intermission I realized two things about Star Wars. For me it is and always be Luke Skywalker’s story, no matter what George Lucas may think, the Anakin / Darth Vader stuff is a plot point in Luke’s story, not the other way around. The other thing I learned is that Star Wars is about nostalgia, it is about remembering a better past, one that can only exist when you are seven. Star Wars transports us back there, and live and in concert it managed to transport thousands of people at once.
