Billie Eilish will be joining Danny Elfman, “Weird Al” Yankovic and Ken Page on stage to perform The Nightmare Before Christmas live in Concert at the Banc of California Stadium on October 29th and October 31st. Elfman made the announcement via an Instagram post in which he said that Eilish will be taking on the vocals of Sally and will perform “Sally’s Song” as part of the special event which will see the songs from the movie being performed live against the movie. While the first night has already sold out, the Halloween Night event still has tickets available.
As well as Billie Eilish joining the concert, Danny Elfman will be reprising his role of Jack Skellington to perform some of his most iconic songs from the film, while Yankovic will bring his voice to the character of Lock to perform “Kidnap Sandy Claws.” The spectacular show also features the amazing John Mauceri joining the show to lead a full orchestra through the score of the movie, but then there is also the icing on the cake of having Ken Page reprising his role as Oogie Boogie, the bug-filled villain of the story who really wants to get rid of “Sandy Claws” until this plot is foiled by Jack.
This is not the first time the movie has been performed in this way, as being a popular standard for both Halloween and Christmas there is always a lot of attention around it. Danny Elfman has held similar concerts in the past as well. The role of Sally was originally played by Catherine O’Hara, who joined Elfman and Ken Page at concerts at the Hollywood Bowl in 2015, 2016 and 2018. Additionally, “Sally’s Song” was recorded by Evanescence lead singer Amy Lee in 2008 for the compilation album, Nightmare Revisited.
With Danny Elfman providing the music, The Nightmare Before Christmas was originally released in 1993 and, like so many future classics, was only a moderate hit. Based on a poem written by producer Tim Burton back in the early 1980s, the film was released by the Touchstone Pictures arm of Disney as they believed the movie would be too scary for children and therefore didn’t want to put it out under the main Disney banner. The film grossed $50 million domestically on its release and then effectively dropped from the radar for many years.
No tricks, all treats! 🎃
Tickets for The Nightmare Before Christmas starring @DannyElfman, live-to-film at @BancStadium, are on sale now for Halloween night! https://t.co/wt3Uu8gHxupic.twitter.com/1rQJxtwQO0
— Disney Music (@DisneyMusic) September 28, 2021
It was a number of years later, when the film was finally released under the Walt Disney Pictures label that the film picked up momentum and soon became not only a cult classic but also a bankable movie for merchandising. The film went on to have numerous home video re-releases in the late 2000s, and in October 2020 it was released in just over 2000 cinemas and managed to finish fourth in the weekend chart behind Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. In all, theatrical re-releases of the movie have pulled in over $27 million and is always a popular film whenever it drops back into limited cinema runs and gets special re-releases. The film continues to hold a 95% approval rate on Rotten Tomatoes, which is not likely to change anytime soon as if anything it only seems to become more popular with each passing year.