Having heard great things about the traveling Star Wars in Concert, I was half hoping to go see it.  On the first leg of it’s North American tour, it came to Baltimore, Scranton and Philadelphia.  The timing of each was less than stellar, so I reluctantly let it pass.

Then came the second leg, and I desperately watched the schedule to see if it would swing by.  And swing by it did, right into the Giant Center.  Being that close, I had to go and my wife agreed, the boys had to go as well.

Traveling with the show are some archival costumes and props, arranged throughout the concourse at the Giant Center.  I had seen a similar display at the Franklin Institute a few years back, but this was some new gear, including a New Hope era Chewbacca.  Interesting bit of detail, the silver blocks on his bandoleer are just chunks of 2×4 spray painted silver.

The 501st and Rebel Legion were out in force.  Such great organizations, it’s a shame that Hershey did not know how to properly handle them.  Instead of asking the costumers to spread out throughout the concourse from the start, they were right at the entrance, creating a massive bottle neck.  A milliliter of common sense, or five seconds worth of research would have revealed the popularity these fans endure and a good way to handle their presence.  One way not to handle them:  let a crowd of kids accrue around Chewbacca, then ask him to move 50 yards down the concourse.  I know that’s not the way to handle them because that’s what Hershey security did, and it was a mess.  In the end, we got the picture.  Note:  kids tend to look at the character, not the camera.

After finding our family section seats, we had a short wait until show time.  The orchestra opened with the main theme.  There were no images from the movies, but lots of really cool live shots of the musicians.  After that piece, narrator Anthony Daniels was introduced.  He’s made his living as C-3PO and one of the most visible actors from the films, and who can blame him.  His schtick was good, with the obligatory threepio references, even dropping into the voice and mannerisms when quoting the droid.

Musically the show was great.  Particularly impressive was the meastro keeping the musicians on tempo to pre-arranged video.  He had some help in the form of small video screen with cues on it, but a great job, just the same.  The music selections were good.  I would have preferred to hear the cantina theme as a stand alone piece, not part of a medley, but that’s my only criticism (the old David Spade bit from Weekend Update about the good songs in buried in medleys comes to mind).  Mildly confusing were shots of Jabba’s palace during the cantina theme, but what was cool were the curtains of LED’s to either side of the screen showing musicians as they played.  The musicians with solos were highlighted throughout the performance.

The show concluded with a planned encore, the Imperial March for a second time, this time with video of the musicians.  Overall, a fantastic performance, heavy cream on the milk scale.