Review Of “Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton” at the Nokia Theater

While many were donning costumes and collecting candy last night, I had the immense pleasure of attending “Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton” at the Nokia Theater in Downtown Los Angeles for the last of 3 shows.

The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra and The Page LA Choir, conducted By John Mauceri, performed the music of Danny Elfman ranging from “Batman” to “Edward Scissorhands”.

Though the concert was amazing from beginning to end, this is Disney Geekery so we will focus on the Disney portions of the show.

Tim Burton and Danny Elfman have a long history of working together and much of that work was involved with Disney films. From “Frankenweenie” to “Alice in Wonderland” to, my favorite movie of all time, “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, each film got significant focus throughout the length of the concert.

A couple of weeks back, we confirmed that Danny Elfman would be singing the parts of Jack Skellington during “The Nightmare Before Christmas” portion. Not only was this true but it was truly magical to be in the presence of.

When Elfman came out on stage, the crowd went crazy and seeing him perform the songs from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” live created a feeling that can’t even be put into words.

As if seeing Jack Skellington himself perform live wasn’t enough, Elfman introduced Catherine O’Hara (the voice of Sally from the film) who was brought on stage to sing “Sally’s Song”.

The concert closed with the music from “Alice in Wonderland” and after a lengthy bit of applause from the very enthusiastic crowd, Elfman came back on stage to perform “Oogie Boogie’s Song”. I was a bit surprised to see Elfman perform the song as Ken Page (the voice talent behind Oogie Boogie) had just performed it 2 weeks prior at the El Capitan theater in Hollywood.

Elfman’s stage presence was as if he had never skipped a beat as the front man of the rock band Oingo Boingo.

When the concert had officially ended, Catherine O’Hara, Danny Elfman and surprise guest Tim Burton, had come on stage to thank the orchestra and the fans for making the show such a success.

Here is video of Elfman’s performance and if rumors are true that this concert will be touring throughout the United States, I can’t urge people enough to attend. It was something you will never forget.