One-man Star Wars Trilogy

A long time ago (1991) in a galaxy far, far away (Canada), a self-professed geek named Charles Ross came up with a friggin' brilliant idea. Instead of trying to write a solo show about growing up on an isolated farm near British Columbia, why not condense the entire plot, soundtrack, and characters of the most successful movie trilogy of all time into a fast and furious piece of hilarious theater? For 58 minutes Ross is a bundle of frenetic energy, contorting his body into Jedis and androids, performing both sides of light saber battles, and even though his Yoda sounds like a drunken leprechaun, his impersonations are spot-on. The original trilogy is told with no set, no costumes, and no exposition — just dialogue from the films. Ross hums all the accompanying themes by John Williams, even the 20th Century Fox fanfare. If you are not familiar with the films, this show will be a ridiculous head-scratcher and make absolutely no sense. It's the attention to minute detail that has the fans jumping out of their seats and high-fiving (the destroyed AT-AT walker collapsing onto its chin on Hoth or the death twitch of Jabba's tail). Ross has been touring this production around the world for five years (he has blessings from Lucasfilm and even found success in Dubai) in most part because the material speaks deeply, if not religiously, to a legion of geeks throughout the known universe. — Nathaniel Eaton