The Star Wars of Penzance, Scene 1

[jana_ch]

A Space Operetta by Jana Hollingsworth
with apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan (especially Gilbert)
copyright 1977-78
(Scene: on board the Death Star, Grand Moff Samuel and a chorus of Stormtroopers are celebrating the completion of the space station.)

Opening Chorus

Zap, oh zap the rebel planet,
Zing, oh zing the asteroid.
Into dust we'll turn its granite

Comments

My Life as a Librettist

[jana_ch]

I wrote The Star Wars of Penzance not long after the first Star Wars movie came out in 1977. I was inspired by hearing about the Star Trek parody based on H.M.S. Pinafore that was created during the final season of the original series. A Penzance/Star Wars pastiche seemed a natural

[mr_sadhead]

This is brilliant. There's more?
I'm linking to this in my own journal. Cuff linking! (I have a free account and can post pictures, write me for details.)

[jana_ch]

Yes, there is more, and I will be posting it. Thanks for the link. And I would love to know how to post my pictures.

You'll notice throughout the piece signs that it was written in the late Seventies. For example, the Death Star ran over budget "several billion." In 1977 that was an absurdly large amount of money that seemed appropriate to a project the size of the Death Star. Now it's a drop in the bucket toward paying for a worthless war.

JcH

[chrisschweizer]

Wow. As a big G&S fan, and a big pre-prequel SW fan, this just made my morning. The bad news is that I'll be singing it for days.

[darth_gojira]

You know, I once did a Attack of the Clones take on Pirates of Penzance, but your version blows mine out of the water! Beautiful!