The Nightmare Before Christmas on Broadway?

copyright Disney

The Nightmare Before Christmas might not sit with Rudolph on the top of Holiday Special Mountain, but based upon a 92% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes and its ever present presence on Hot Topic shelves it is not far behind.



Tim Burton penned the original poem that grew into the 1993 Bass-Rankin inspired stop-motion classic, with fellow artisan Henry Selick as director. Burton has said the seed of the tale came from watching how marketing for Halloween and Christmas has increasingly collided with each other despite their two month separation. With striking visuals, a solid script well voice acted, awesome music and...what am I doing?! This is a movie whose title gets 15.9 million hits on Google. It has been made into video games. It has been translated into at least a dozen languages. Disney transforms its Haunted Mansion attractions into Halloween Town every year! Is there anyone reading this post who DOESN'T know of this film?

Okay, if you haven't then watch the original trailer and accompanying song to decide if this tale of 'being true to yourself' might worth your time. Both clips copyright Disney and so on and so forth.

For those who are familiar with the movie, have you ever thought about a live action version? I know that might sound like a stretch because I know it never crossed my mind.

Good for you, Han. Disney owns you too, ya nerf herder.

But! If The Evil Dead, Spider Man, Monty Python (Spamalot), Heathers, Lestat, The Adams Family, and Carrie can make the awkward, sometimes painful leap to the stage than why not a work already filled with spectacle and music? Why not, indeed. And it might look something like this....

Granted this is a concept piece, but I think you can see it has legs. Matthew Patrick Davis stars as Jack Skellingon with Nicole Hawkyard* as the all too briefly seen Sally. The video comes from Matthew's YouTube channel which states he and Nicole developed the production as fans to the original. Not everyone I've shown this too liked it, but most did. Those who didn't largely stated there was no need to present the source material differently. I get it that. I do. It wasn't the performance, it was that it was being performed differently. Fair enough. I have my own favorites I never want touched, as you probably do. On the other hand I say, "Well Done!" The creators took source material they liked and tried to manifest it well. Jack doesn't look like the "I like turtles" meme kid. I respect that.

Good for you, Cap. Disney owns... oh, you get the idea.

Back to the point: Watch the video with an open mind and try to appreciate the work and its spirit.  Can't ask anything more of you than that, gentle reader.

Be seeing you.

Sam



*Matthew and Nicole have IMDB pages highlighting some of their work if you want to see what else they've done.