Star Wars to be staged at London stadium

George Lucas will be staging his epic saga Star Wars in London.

London, Dec 12: American film director George Lucas has revealed that he will be staging his epic saga Star Wars at a stadium in London.

Lucasfilm has authorised ‘Star Wars: A Musical Journey’, which is a retelling of the story with excerpts of the film combined with live orchestral accompaniment. According to producers for the show, which is premiering in Britain, though actors will be used to narrate the story, it will definitely not be a stage musical. The production, which is based on more than 13 hours of film, cut to make a 90 minutes film, will be more like a classical music concert performed in front of a cinema screen, 27m (90ft) wide. The audience at the 17,000-seat O2 Arena in southeast London will watch key scenes from the film as 86 musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra play extracts from John Williams’s score. Spencer Churchill, a producer, said that the running order of the scenes was still being finalised. “We’ve worked out most of it,” a news website quoted him as saying. “We originally thought it would be a chronological telling of the six films . . . but it is not as precise as that,” he stated. Churchill declined to reveal which scenes had been cut, but insisted that the scenes that are the fans’ favourite have been preserved. “Because there is so much to choose from there will be Star Wars fans out there who will say, ‘How come that wasn’t in there?’ But overall I think Lucasfilm has done a brilliant job,” he said. The idea behind the adaptation of the films was to allow audiences greater participation. “It is a lot different to sitting down and listening to the record. As a film it is very much a one-way experience. We are trying to bridge that a little bit to make it a two-way experience,” Churchill added. Tickets to ‘Star Wars: A Musical Journey’, which will cost between 30 pounds and 100 pounds, will go on sale on Monday. ANI