A Long Time Ago: The Eighties Strike Back
A Long Time Ago: The Eighties Strike Back
By Simon MacDonald
Penguin Point Productions
Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival – Pink Venue</strong>
It’s hard to say what annoyed me most with this show – the poor singing and projection, the sloppy dancing or the row of rude people in front of me filming with cheap pocket cameras. Yes, they technically didn’t violate the “No Flash Photography” warning, at least not too often, but the amateur photo crew was hanging out with cast afterwards cooing over the results. I hope someone has captured a pleasant memory of tonight.
So let’s talk about music. “A Long Time Ago…” is a reasonably well written show that mashes up every loose 80’s pop culture references to retell the first three Star Wars movies. The heart of the story is the parody lyrics written to contemporary music that runs from “Video Killed the Radio Star” to “Center Field” to “How Does It Feel.” When I could hear the lyrics, I enjoyed the quirky humor and snappy pacing, but with no microphones and singers who didn’t project, I had to focus on the words rather than enjoy what they said. Playing the sound track over spoken dialog didn’t help either; this is a show where the cast needs to make more noise than the sound booth. The MTV style dance numbers were anything but smooth, while everybody was pointed the right way, none of them seemed in sync with the others and ever so often the choreography seemed stuck, waiting for a key change or a lyric to appear.
On the positive side, there were some genuine funny moments. Greedo is portrayed as one of the Mario Brothers in the famous “Hans Shot first” scene, Yoda was replaced by a much more accessible Muppet who could tell jokes, and Darth Vader (Adam Bellas) as the self answering telephone brought a smile to my cold, cold heart. I admit the show got a standing ovation, but then I’m not the sort of guy who hangs out at Omnicom. But if you just can’t enough Jedi humor, stand up and be counted. But if you want to shoot home movies, please do it at Tech rehearsal.
This show is part of the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival. Tickets and other information may be found at http:\www.OrlandoFringe.org
