THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, the musical

I've read a number of the "Movies you wish they would make into musicals"...and this movie always seems to get mentioned a number of times but hasn't really gotten a discussion of it's own.

So, I'm asking you. Do you think "The Nightmare Before Christmas" would work as a stage musical?

Personally, I LOVE Elfman's score. The music is superb and, I think, on stage...it would be quite a spooky but interesting show.

It would need an amazing production team. But, one thing that worries me is...doesn't it seem like it would only be a seasonal show. People would get a kick out of seeing this show September thru January...but what about the other part of the year? My fear would be people would lose interest once the holiday season passed.

Maybe I'm wrong...and I hope I am. Because I think this would make a fantastic show.

Disney has the rights to it, correct? Hmmmm.

---

Yeah I agree 100%, it would be an amazing stage production as long as you had the right people working on it. It would obviously need Danny Elfman for the music, maybe write another song or two for it, and then I would think they would want Tim Burton to direct. Anything this duo does is just awesome! I think any Burton film with Elfman's score would be so great as a musical...Sleepy Hollow and Edward Scissorhands especially. I think Disney should definately look into turning this movie into a stage show!

I'm just waiting for someone to pick this up and run with it. Someone tell Disney to can Tarzan (which was only a so-so movie) and pick up Nightmare.

I'd be the first one in line to audition for Jack.

I'm a huge Nightmare fan, and would love to see some attempt to present a version of it on stage, but I see one real problem in turning it into a full-scale Bway musical, and that is the length. The movie runs not much over an hour, and I think any attempts to pad it out would feel exactly like that - padding. And I agree with toodramatic - a lot of the charm of Nightmare comes from the great character designs and the quirks of stop-motion animation, which really can't be reproduced on stage. The score is way underappreciated, though, and deserves more exposure.

I'm still in the camp that thinks Disney should have brought Hunchback of Notre Dame to Broadway - They have a great, genuine musical theatre score to start with (unlike the handful of pop songs from Tarzan), a story that easily lends itself to live theatre, and a real opportunity to expand upon and fix the flaws of a good-but-not-perfect film version.

---

Emerson College did an adaptation of it a couple of years ago. I never saw it but i heard it was quite good. The director used black light to give it that glowing claymation look throughout, from what i heard. I think it could make an excellent stage musical. The opening could have all the curious creatures coming to the stage from various parts of the theater (creeping in from various hiding spots). The witches could fly over down to the stage, others crawl over the audience, climb down the rafters, i think it oculd be BRILLIANT!


This is Halloweeen, This is Halloween

sweeedboy I totally agree it COULD be brilliant. I'm just skeptical, but hey I'd love to see someone give it a shot.

NB4X is my favorite movie. I would love to be able to see or perform in a stage version of it, but not if it would be in ANY way detrimental to my memories of that autumn in 1992 or 1993 where i saw it about fifty times in the theatres.

I say have Burton and Elfman work together (with a better scenarist than Burton, unfortunately; he's strictly an "idea" man) on an original work.

Updated On: 9/8/05 at 01:38 PM

Hey, just found this message today...its funny, I've been in works for producing "The Nightmare before Christmas" a New Musical for about 5 months now...

Would love any opinions..

I've always wished for this! Of course, I would only be happy If I were to play Sally... but who on earth would play Jack!? He's one of a kind, and Elfman's voice would be really hard to replace!

PS: I think John Gallagher Jr. should be in it... personally, he looks like he could be one of Boogie's boys, with his big "Moritz" hair!

^ That's how I feel about it; I think it would be a great limited engagement from September-January

So, I know I've been known to complain about movies brought to the stage, but for this one I'll make an exception.

I've thought TNBC would make a great stage show forever now! Yay! Also, it should tour...

I don't like holiday shows in Bway houses, it takes up space for what could be new work.

---

Updated On: 5/8/09 at 08:02 PM