Reviewed: Friday, October 29, 2021; Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles
Remaining shows: October 31, 2021. Ticket information.
When Disney Concerts first adapted the hit 1993 animated film Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas into a mixed-media live music event in 2015, it was a rare example of a high-profile CEO (Robert Iger) paying tribute to achievements from the regime of a prior CEO (Michael Eisner). Underlying that seeming magnanimity was simply smart business sense: the film had become a perennial favorite, and the Disney Corporation was eager to exploit and expand that popularity into other areas. Beginning in 2001, various Disney parks around the world — notably Disneyland, Disney World and Disneyland Tokyo — began what would become a seasonal makeover of the Haunted Mansion ride to incorporate characters and motifs from The Nightmare Before Christmas spanning the entire holiday season from Halloween through New Year’s. As stadium screenings of classic movies with live musical accompaniment began gaining traction, Disney saw a further opportunity and, in true Disney fashion, seized it.
The success of the concert experience, however, owes its principal debt to the remarkable creative collaboration that defined the movie — based on a poem written by Tim Burton when he was a young Disney animator, the movie brought together the talents of screenwriter Caroline Thompson, animator Henry Selick, composer/songwriter/singer Danny Elfman and a stunning voice cast including such names as Paul Reubens, Ken Page and Catherine O’Hara. The live show, conversely, is dominated by the remarkable hyphenate talent of Elfman. Though regarded as a seasonal event primarily in Los Angeles, The Nightmare Before Christmas concert has also toured internationally in England, Ireland and Scotland to similar acclaim. I first saw the show in 2018 at the Hollywood Bowl with my wife and then five-year-old daughter, an enthralling bookend to having seen the film as a young and unmarried film critic when first released. I suspect I am hardly alone in that — judging from the families present that night, it was clear a substantial majority of us were there for the same reason, to hand off our youthful enthusiasm for the movie and its creative team to a new generation.
Then came COVID-19.
There is no point in belaboring the toll this pandemic has taken on cinema and live performance — even as we near the hoped-for end of the pandemic, theaters and venues continue to struggle with little indication as to when the world will return to its full embrace of public events. Some films are doing well, and higher-profile concerts are drawing audiences, but it will likely be some time yet before we see real daylight for these industries at large.
It was, therefore, with both great relief and curiosity that I brought my family once again to Los Angeles’ new Banc of California Stadium — home to the LAFC MSL soccer team and future home of the NWSL women’s professional team Angel City FC — to see the live event which had so enthralled us three years ago. There were real questions this time, however, as the cast was now missing the remarkable talents of Catherine O’Hara — voice of both Sally and Shock — with attendance still an open question. Would Angelenos even show? Banc of California Stadium is a massive venue twice the footprint of the Hollywood bowl with 50% more seating in this configuration. Any general reluctance to return to normal live events would be instantly evident and could potentially cripple the experience. Most importantly, would my daughter’s winsome memories of the previous event be reinforced — or tarnished by COVID-era doldrums? Knowing that Disney Concerts is as fine-tuned a machine as any other part of the Disney corporate empire, I was certain of at least one thing — the show itself, all other variables notwithstanding, would deliver.
Anyone who has ever attended an event at the Hollywood Bowl knows to allocate at least 50% of the evening for traffic, parking and the long trek to your seats. It’s a wonderful, historic venue, right in the heart of Hollywood, immediately adjacent the Hollywood Freeway — yet still hamstrung by a parking and access bottleneck which can be taxing. Banc of California Stadium, on the other hand, is a new venue — adjacent to USC and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum — tucked conveniently alongside the Harbor and Santa Monica Freeways. Though not immune to its own bottlenecks, for an event like Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas, it’s a more logical and manageable venue — a fact made abundantly clear upon arrival. Proof of vaccination and other COVID-19 mitigation protocols created a lengthy line for entry, but venue officials were well prepared and both parking and access were handled with great efficiency.
Once seated, any remaining reservations were dispelled. The stadium was packed to the gills — including the seating area on the field — with multiple video screens and a premium concert lighting and audio setup far beyond what has ever been possible at the Bowl. The trusty John Mauceri — former conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and himself a veteran of previous Nightmare performances — launched the evening by leading the orchestra through a wonderful warmup accompaniment of Walt Disney’s 1929 “Skelton Dance,” from the “Silly Symphonies” series. That was followed by the overture — and as the final few seats filled in… the movie began, greeted by a cacophony of cheers that seemed to loudly proclaim, “Los Angeles is back.”
Comedian Greg Proops — also a member of the original voice cast and a veteran of previous concerts — once again led the backup chorus of five through the opening song, “This is Halloween,” with Elfman then making his appearance to an eruption of cheers with “Jack’s Lament.” If there was any question as to the 68-year-old Elfman’s ability to maintain his eternally youthful energy even after the interlude of COVID-19, it was immediately put to rest — Jack was also back, and it seemed to me, at least, that Elfman was more energized this time than I remembered from 2018. Indeed, later in the show, he seemed to almost concede as much when speaking to the audience about his anxieties in preparing this show — his eagerness to once again mount what has become a defining hallmark in his career tempered by fear that another surge might cause the whole thing to be cancelled. But the evening went off without so much as a single hitch, technical or otherwise.
Lighting design, audio mix and performance harmonized with an audience clearly and desperately eager to prove something to themselves and the world at large — that we have not changed, and that we will not allow ourselves to be changed by a temporary tragedy. This is what this industry and this city does best — and the spectacle did not disappoint.
Once again, the absence of O’Hara was regrettable — she was the original Sally and Shock, and has been a high point in previous performances. Though unexplained, her absence might be accounted for as the simple need for a break after her acclaimed turn on the award-winning and now-concluded Schitt’s Creek. For this performance, big name firepower replaced her in the form of “Weird Al” Yankovic for the voice of Shock and superstar Billie Eilish — fresh off her recent title song for the James Bond film No Time to Die — as Sally. Yankovic proved an entertaining stage presence alongside Elfman and Paul Reubens (bedecked in a feathery and festive red wig) for the “Lock, Shock and Barrell” segments, even if his voice couldn’t match the timbre and innate naughtiness of O’Hara’s. Eilish, however, was revelatory as Sally — emerging on stage in a form fitting variation on Sally’s dress, and giving “Sally’s Song” a lilting, haunting quality that could not have been better suited to the moment (and, judging by the unbridled screams of the young women around us — she may well have drawn as much as half the audience by herself).
Elsewhere, the Richard Kraft-directed evening delivered on the usual, expected high points from previous shows — original cast member Ken Page once again stole the evening as Oogie Boogie with a ferocious, strutting rendition of “Oogie Boogie’s Song” (which Elfman wrote for him) while violin virtuoso Sandy Cameron — a regular collaborator of Elfman’s — brought the house down (as usual) with another dazzling intermission performance that only further confirmed her stature as the rock star of the classical music world.
In total, even without O’Hara, it was an evening at least as memorable as that bygone Hollywood Bowl event from 2018 — and in the wake of COVID-19 — exponentially more welcome. Less than two weeks after the 2018 concert, Southern California’s Woolsey Fire would rage through a half dozen communities, wiping out hundreds of homes and leaving thousands of children traumatized and/or homeless from the experience. A year later, COVID began making its appearance — and the world has not been normal since. For children in particular, whose short lifespans have been disproportionately impacted by trauma these past few years, traditions — particularly those like The Nightmare Before Christmas — are more essential than they have perhaps ever been. They represent resilience, continuity and communicate to those children that the adults in their lives are strong and will carry them through.
All of those emotions were easy to read on Danny Elfman’s elfin face as he brought the blessed evening to a close, offering up his own rendition of “Oogie Boogie’s Song” and… as per tradition… an Oingo Boingo encore performance of “Dead Man’s Party.”
Anyone who is able to attend the final performance Halloween night is in for the time of their lives — a treat to last a lifetime. Those who aren’t so fortunate can still rest assured… as we emerge from the pandemic, Elfman & Co. aren’t done. They will be back. Perhaps with Catherine O’Hara — but if not, Billie Eilish can more than hold her own. Either way — this Nightmare was nothing if not a dream — the kind of dream we all desperately need to emerge from our long, shared nightmare.
Thank you, Danny Elfman.
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