Not sure if this is the place for this, but I've been working with a local community theater in northeast Pennsylvania and they may try to stage a Star Wars musical, based on Episode IV, if, of course, such a thing would be legal. I would write an original libretto and work with a composer on developing a score. We wouldn't pay any participants [except perhaps the pit orchestra; they alone tend to be paid in community theater productions, for some reason] and we wouldn't exactly charge admission, but there would be places to make donations. Would we be able to do something like this without running afoul of Lucasfilm's lawyers? Thanks!
Grey area. Though I'm not positive, I believe it's illegal but if you're not directly charging for admission, and you make it clear that a donation is not required of all in attendance, you shouldn't get into too much trouble. At most, a cease & desist, which only harms the time you've so far put into it (again, I think, in legal matters the best defense won't be, "But some guy on the internet said...").
Lucasfilm has historically been cool with fan projects that don't charge. I would just be sure to clearly include in all posters / Web sites / publicity material that admission is free. Incidentally, whether the participants get paid has no bearing on anything. You're paying people for their time, they're not claiming to give you the rights to any of Lucasfilm's property. Rick McCallum loves you!
You can spend money, just as long as you don't make any money. I actually saw a really cool Star Wars play at a Star Wars convention once. It was really well done. Don't know if it was legal or not, I suppose it was considering it was a Star Wars convention.
Charles Ross of http://www.onemanstarwars.com/ would be the person to ask. He's been performing around the world and at SW conventions for over 10 years, doing his version of Star Wars. Here are some other SW Musicals: http://www.salon.com/2011/04/06/star_wars_the_musical_full/ & http://vimeo.com/album/1569575 http://www.infauxmedia.com/
