Phoebe Bridgers will appear at two screenings of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas with live musical accompaniment at London’s OVO Arena Wembley in December, in which she will provide the voice of Sally.
In addition to Bridgers, Danny Elfman – who composed the music, lyrics and score for the 1993 film, and voiced protagonist Jack Skellington – will voice Skellington once again for the screenings. Original cast member Ken Page, who voiced Oogie Boogie in the film, will also reprise his role.
Other who are set to provide vocals for the performance include Randy Crenshaw, Greg Proops, Angie Jaree, Baraka May and Fletcher Sheridan. They will be joined by the BBC Concert Orchestra for the performances, which will take place December 9 and 10. Tickets are on sale now.
The screenings mark the second of its kind in as many years. Last year, Billie Eilish voiced Sally for a similar event, performing ‘Sally’s Song’ and duetting with Elfman at Los Angeles’ Banc of California Stadium. Page reprised his role as Oogie Boogie for that event as well, while “Weird Al” Yankovic voiced the character of Lock.
Elfman, meanwhile, performed a handful of Nightmare Before Christmas favourites himself during his sets at this year’s Coachella Festival in April, performing a medley of songs from the film.
That was sandwiched between numerous other tracks Elfman has composed for the screen – such as the Simpsons theme and tracks from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and Batman – as well as songs from his previous band Oingo Boingo as well as his 2021 solo album, ‘Big Mess’.
Reflecting on the performances, Elfman called the reaction “intense and insane”. He elaborated: “Going into it I knew it was going to be a really risky endeavour. I don’t think anybody’s tried that before, mixing up these kinds of elements in this kind of insane musical mash-up.
“When you’re trying a conceptual idea, you don’t know what’s going to happen,” he continued. “But in the end, not having a safety net is also extremely exhilarating. It’s what it’s like when you’re up there on the high wire and the net is down and you know that the chance of just like falling into an abyss is extremely high. That, of course, is super exhilarating in itself”.
Later this month, Elfman will perform a pair of greatest-hits Halloween shows at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl. The shows will see him play a similar set to his Coachella appearances, drawing on his extensive back catalogue.
Bridgers, meanwhile, recently teamed up with Mumford & Sons frontman Marcus Mumford for a new track called ‘Stonecatcher’. The song features on Mumford’s debut solo album, ‘(self-titled)’. (NME)