By JOY TIPPING / The Dallas Morning News
ARLINGTON – Cowboys Stadium was lighted Friday night not with lighters or cellphones, but with thousands of miniscule, flashing light-saber keyrings as fans showed their appreciation for “Star Wars in Concert.”
The multimedia event featured a full symphony orchestra playing John Williams’ music from all six Star Wars movies, lasers, flames and specially edited clips from the films. It played to a stadium that wasn’t as packed as for U2 or Paul McCartney, but seemed respectably at-least-two-thirds full.
Mark Watters led the orchestra, and Anthony Daniels, who played protocol droid C-3PO in the movies, provided live narration. The orchestra sounded better than I had expected in Jerry Jones’ Death Star, at least from the floor seats where I was perched. The stage was surrounded with acoustic blankets on three sides, which no doubt helped.
Daniels uttered every word as if … well, as if the fate of the empire depended on it. But he was hampered by a lackluster, repetitive script by Jamie Richardson. The author could use the force of both a dictionary (there were repeated instances of linguistic horrors such as “bravery and courage” and “intelligence and intellect”) and a thesaurus; surely there’s a synonym for “evil” that would allow for some variety in describing the bad guys.
The audience seemed an equal mix of relative Star Wars newbies (many toddlers in Yoda costumes) and long-in-the-tooth Jedi and Princess Leia wannabes (I wasn’t in costume, but I sorta wished my hair was long enough again for cinnamon-bun braids). Everyone seemed excited and inspired at the end, ready to go out and wield their tiny light sabers till the empire (or perhaps their bosses or spouses) give in to their demands and peace returns to the galaxy. Or at least the living room.
