‘Star Wars,’ in concert and on screen in Manchester

Some may be wooed to “Star Wars: In Concert” for the culture, the chance to be in the presence of a world class symphony and enormous choir. Some others may go for the entertainment. But there is another group, mighty of spirit, who will see this as the ultimate opportunity to come out in force and let their “Star Wars” geek flag fly. And they should.

After all, “Star Wars: In Concert” is a chronological mashup of all six movies, edited down to a 90-minute highlights reel set in precise time to the music of John Williams.

The narrator alone is enough to send true fans into palpitations: none other than C-3PO, sometimes also known as actor Anthony Daniels. He will be there live.

And as Leia and Hans and Jar-Jar and Amidala fret and strut their way across a three-story-high, high-definition LED super-screen, an 86-piece symphony orchestra and a 60-piece choir will sing along.

“It’s a giant show,” said Gregg Perloff, one of the producers for the show. “It’s spectacular. It has pyrotechnics and lasers and CO2 blasts. It’s definitely got elements of large-scale rock concerts.”

Perloff’s company, Another Planet, is producing the show along with Lucasfilm Ltd. “Star Wars in Concert” had its world premiere at the 02 Arena in London on April 10.

Perloff speaks about the show with an enthusiasm incongruent to his standing as muckety-muck in the concert world.

Perloff, 57, first became involved in concert promotion while in college at UCLA, ginning up audiences for Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder and The Eagles. Eventually, Perloff was recruited to book concerts with Bill Graham Presents and went on to run the company after Graham’s death in 1992.

Perloff has produced more than 15,000 live entertainment events, including booking and producing shows for the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Metallica and Radiohead, among others. He also helped book Live Aid.

Despite all of this, he speaks rather sentimentally of the “Star Wars” show.

“The themes of ‘Star Wars’ really mean something to people,” he said.

“You have fathers and sons who maybe the father was into the movies and the son loves ‘Clone Wars,’ and now they are sharing that with each other. We have mothers and daughters who maybe play with the action figures. You have date nights set around watching the movies. The themes are just something that still appeal to people.”

Which is why, Perloff said, the producers wanted the show to be one that had a little something for everyone, from people who just love the symphony to parents who want their kids to be more cultured and are stymied as to how to get them to listen to classically inspired music to the die-hard fans.

Even the papa of all the “Star Wars” films weighed in on the experience.

“We’ve taken the key themes from the music and cut together all the images that fit with each theme, so you can really get a sense of how the music played into the images,” said George Lucas, creator of the “Star Wars” saga. “The whole soundtrack is a testament to John Williams’ creativity and his extraordinary ability to enhance the emotional aspects of the films.”

Perloff also said that producers worked hard to make the concert more than just a music event or a film event, but a total immersion experience into the “Star Wars” universe.

To that end, even before audiences sit down to be transported, a lobby full of rarely seen artifacts sets the tone. Jedi Masters Kit Fisto and Plo Koon will be frozen in display for inspection, not to mention blasters and helmets from galaxies – or at least sound stages – far, far away.