Forget the home screen — WASO will perform the original Star Wars score live with the full film for its 50th anniversary

Half a century after Star Wars: A New Hope first hit cinemas in 1977, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) is bringing the film back to Perth in a way no home screen can replicate. On 30 April and 1 May 2027, WASO will perform John Williams’ iconic score live in full as the complete film plays on a giant screen at Riverside Theatre, Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The format is one WASO’s audiences will already know well. The orchestra plays every note of the soundtrack in real time while the film runs overhead, and on-screen subtitles keep the dialogue readable without pulling focus from the music. It has consistently sold out — and for a score of this stature, the stakes are higher than usual.

Williams’ music for A New Hope won the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1978. Additionally, the American Film Institute named it the greatest American film score of all time in 2005. The fanfare that opens the film, the Force theme, Princess Leia’s motif, the Imperial March… these are pieces audiences carry in their heads for life. Hearing them performed live by a full symphony orchestra, precisely synced to the film that made them famous, is a different experience entirely.