Of Christmas, or a Nightmare Before (Part 2)

As promised, here is the review of “A Nightmare’s Holiday!”

This curtains were closed. The auditorium was black. The only sound to be heard was the chilling melodies of music by Danny Elfman, and I sat in my seat feeling as giddy as a goth in a graveyard.

Suddenly the music turns to the recognizable and haunting theme of Halloween Town, and the curtains lift to reveal a backdrop of black, bent-over houses with red lighting behind it, and the characters all come out in order of appearance at their cues as in the movie. They all are dancing in a creepy, elegant form of ballet to this particular piece, and the artistic genius is absolutely dead on. Last, but not least, out from the shadows steps Jack Skellington, played by James Delage, and it takes all of my self control to keep from squealing in glee at the sight of one of my most favorite Tim Burton characters. Not only is the dancer tall and slender like the Pumpkin King himself, but he has such a mastery of his craft in this role that it feels as though you’ve been taken from your seat and are floating in a world of skeletons and bats.

The costuming was absolutely perfect; the fabrics were chosen right, they didn’t look messy or thrown together, as costumes sometimes do, and they were absolute reflections of the characters that were being played. My personal favorite was the girl who played the Mayor of Halloween Town. She was dressed in black pants and a grand peacoat with long, draping tails in a fabric of black and white swirls. She wore a mask resembling the face of the character she played, and a small, glittering, black top hat sat above her hair bun on the top of her head, slightly askew.

The acting was spot on, all of the characters were portraying their roles to the maximum effect. The Jack Skellington was curious as ever, and Sally was just as cautious and protective of Jack as she was in the film. The extras, who played a merry assortment of elves, toys, vampires, broken dolls, and all sorts of other things, added immensely to the performance and were beautifully and artfully represented in their dancing.

The only negative thing I have to say about this particular show is that they storyline differed from the original one a little bit, because instead of Christmas being ruined by Jack and the Pumpkin King having to get Santa to fix it, he delivered his nightmarish presents and that was that, and they were all friends afterwards. I understand that there’s only so much you can do with a ballet, however, and what they did have was magnificent.

Whoo, sorry it took so long to get this review up! Between finals, writings, and all sorts of other distractions, blogging got put to the back burner. But! That shall not be an excuse any longer, I have a duty to you, my lovely Raven Rumps, to keep you entertained with the oddity that is my life. I promise a post about Christmas gifts sometime next week after the glorious day, and until then I bid you goodnight~

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *