On October 30, PBS is going to present an amazing show in the series “Live From Lincoln Center”.  It’s “Danny Elfman’s Music From The Films of Tim Burton’.  It’s an 88-piece orchestra playing the music from iconic Tim Burton movies like “Batman”, “Beetlejuice”, and “Edward Scissorhands”.  The presentation is done by showing these amazing movies while the orchestra and choir performs the music live.

For me, the crowning moment in this show is going to be seeing Danny Elfman sing “What’s This?” from the 1992 Disney cult classic, “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas”.  The movie was made during a short period in the history of the Disney Studios in the mid-1980’s when they were producing movies well outside of their normal family-friendly fare in an effort to expand their audience.  They were making a major effort to revive the Animation Department with films like “The Little Mermaid”, “Aladdin”, “Beauty and the Beast”, and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” – the last of which was a unique collaboration with other animation studios like Warner Bros. produced by a Disney-owned production company they called “Touchstone Pictures”.  Earlier efforts had resulted in major disappointments, thanks to movies like “The Black Hole”, “Something Wicked This Way Comes”, and “TRON” which all lost millions of dollars. Unfazed and unsatisfied, then-CEO Ron Miller created Touchstone.  The new company’s first film was “Splash” starring Tom Hanks and Darryl Hanna, directed by Ron Howard and it was a huge hit.  It was soon followed by a string to successful light-hearted movies like “Down and Out in Beverly Hills”, “Ruthless People”, and (one of my favorites!) “Tin Men”.

My wife and I were instant fans of “Nightmare Before Christmas” when it was released in theaters.  It was visually stunning with intricate stop-motion animation, it had an outrageously clever script, and it was all done in an operatic style not seen since the heydays of Warner Bros. “What’s Opera, Doc?” and “The Rabbit of Seville”.  Best of all, it had that special characteristic shared by all of the most successful animated films – it was thoroughly enjoyable by both kids and adults.  We kept the soundtrack cassette in the car throughout the 1990’s and would play it over and over again on long trips.  Naturally, we watched the DVD every Halloween, too!

So having the chance to see Danny Elfman perform Jack Skellington’s signature piece live on stage will be a tremendous thrill.  There’s a promotional clip for the program on the PSB website at http://www.pbs.org/arts/pbs-arts-festival/2015/danny-elfmans-music/ and it’s easy to see how the sculptors formed the tall, lanky figure of Jack.  And fans of the TV series “Dharma and Greg” will easily see the family resemblence between Danny and his equally-talented sister Jenna.  So mark this one down on your calendar or set your DVR to record this amazing presentation.  It’s a great staycation treat for the whole family.