#THEATRE: “ONE-MAN STAR WARS TRILOGY” STARRING CHARLES ROSS NOW PLAYS AT BLUMA APPEL THEATRE IN TORONTO

By George Kozera for Mr. Will Wong

Frenetic and hyper energetic, Canada’s own Charles Ross condenses the almost 12 hours of cinematic magic that is Star Wars episodes IV, V and VI into a 75 minute intermission-less marathon. ONE-MAN STAR WARS TRILOGY is definitely written for and caters to the geeks and nerds and the Sheldon Coopers of the world who can recite the movie verbatim. Many of those at the star-studded Toronto premiere I attended had responded with enthusiasm and gales of laughter. Guests tonight included John Ralston, Ashleigh Rains, Kristian Bruun, Jackie Perez, Lachlan Murdoch, Julie Nessrallah and Ashley Leggat.

As a more casual fan of the Movie franchise, what I truly admired about this show is that it played with my imagination. The stage is black. There are no props, not even a light sabre! It’s just Charles Ross, in a black jumpsuit, as he re-enacts all 3 Movies: characters, sound effects, the iconic musical soundtrack and opening scrolls. Ross is not a master impersonator, but his 3CPO and R2D2 impressions were dead-on. My imagination ran wild as I envisioned the Movie with Ross’ words. The Show is fast paced (sometimes to a detriment as occasionally all the dialogue runs together too quickly and is hard to understand), very funny and entertaining. I wish there were more commentary jokes like the one where Luke Skywalker says he was surprised that Darth Vader wasn’t black and the answer he received was “No, that’s James Earl Jones. My voice.” More zingers like that would have made my evening.

ONE-MAN STAR WARS TRILOGY is a fun night out. Charles Ross is outstanding and I do hope he wasn’t joking when, while interacting with the audience, he said that his next show will be “One-Man Pride and Prejudice”. It runs now through May 1, 2016 at Toronto’s Bluma Appel Theatre.

More here.

(Photo credit: George Kozera/David Baldwin/Handout)