Wow. Just: wow. This was the coolest thing to experience live. I’d been seeing advertisements for this concert for months now but I hadn’t bought tickets until yesterday evening. I bought two $65 tickets in the 27th row of the orchestra and got excited. I love a bunch of Tim Burton’s movies: Sleepy Hollow (#1 favorite), The Nightmare Before Christmas (hello, childhood!), Big Fish, Sweeney Todd (okay, so that one doesn’t count because Sondheim wrote the music, but whatever), etc. 

The first act, in this order, consisted of music from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Sleepy Hollow (!!!), Mars Attacks!, Big Fish, and Batman/Batman Returns. A young boy named Leif Christian Pedersen sang the “ooo’s” during the Sleepy Hollow sequence and he was excellent.  

At intermission, we saw an audience member in full Beetlejuice attire. That’s some dedication. The second act, in order, was: Planet of the Apes, Corpse Bride, Dark Shadows, Frankenweenie, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Alice in Wonderland (John-Dominick Mignardi provided the boy soprano vocals, he was also amazing). An amazing violinist named Sandy Cameron dressed in some bad-ass black leather took on the violin solos in the Edwards Scissorhands segment. She was awesome. 

The most special part of the show was when Danny Elfman himself came out to perform the Jack Skeleton vocals during The Nightmare Before Christmas. I had no idea he’d done the vocals for the movie so this was a total surprise. He had SO much fun up there. Four additional performers came out to do the additional voices for “This Is Halloween.” It was just amazing. SO much fun.

This was totally worth the $65 for what turned out to be an awesome seat. They have one more performance, I think, on Sunday, so if you can check it out, get there!

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