Weird Al And A Young Popstar Are Teaming Up For The Nightmare Before Christmas
Weird Al Yankovic is taking his considerable talent to the stage to team with a pop star for an adaptation of a Tim Burton classic. This is just the kind of celebrity Mad Libs you love to see around the holiday season and this show has the chance to be an almost must-see event. Collider has it that Weird Al Yankovic will be partnering with Billie Eilish on stage to perform a live-action, stage adaptions of The Nightmare Before Christmas. This could really be something.
The Nightmare Before Christmas stage adaptation will be going down in Los Angeles for just two nights (October 29th and 31st) at the Banc of California Stadium. Weird Al Yankovic will be playing the role of Lock from the original movie and singing “Kidnap the Sandy Claws”. This part was voiced by Paul Reubens in the original film. Meanwhile, Billie Eilish will be voicing the character of Sally. Sally was originally played by Catherine O’Hara in the movie version. Eilish will be singing “Sally’s Song” and really, considering the singer’s style this feels like near-perfect casting.
In addition to Weird Al Yankovic and Billie Eilish, Danny Elfman is back after having a part in the original movie. He was tasked with the singing role of Jack Skellington. The voice part of this role was played by Chris Sarandon, but the composer and performer Elfman handled the crooning vocals. Elfman also voiced Oogie Boogie and the Clown with the Tear-Away Face. Elfman was tasked with composing the songs for the film and will be heading up this stage adaptation as well.
The seemingly motley crew of performers do represent the oddities of the original Tim Burton classic. A creative and dark take on the holiday season, the movie combined elements of the holiday with a macabre look at the festivities around the Christmas holiday. Combining Halloween and Christmas together for a weird and fascinating film, it has become something of a staple for those wishing to eschew some of the standard, cookie-cutter aspects of the holiday. In this way, folks like Weird Al Yankovic and Billie Eilish fit right in, two performers clearly willing to march to the beat of their own odd drums.
Weird Al Yankovic has been in the music industry for more than four decades now, an unbelievable run considering he carved out a particular niche, an area that he’s almost solely occupied for the better part of his career. Writing and performing parodies of popular songs has been his calling card for years now and he’s done send-ups of nearly every genre. Some of his more popular hits include “Eat It” (to Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”), “Smells Like Nirvana” (“Smells Like Teen Spirit”), “Pretty Fly for a Rabbi”, and “Amish Paradise”. He’s still at it today with parodies of Hamilton in recent years.
This latest stage turn should be a real crowd-pleaser with so much talent involved. Tickets are available on Ticketmaster now with seating already beginning to sell out.
