A fan-tastic ‘Nightmare’
Danny Elfman’s crowd shared the Bowl with Tim Burton’s for a wild Halloween show.
Danny Elfman was the main attraction at the Hollywood Bowl during a live concert performance of Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” on Saturday, but it was Burton’s devoted fan base who stole the show with inventive costumes drawn from the director’s charmingly twisted filmography.
The Halloween concert in front of a packed house doubled as a costume festival and selfie bonanza, with audience members eagerly posing for photos with walking incarnations of Jack Skellington, Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice.
The screening of the 1993 stop-motion animated movie, with a live orchestra, felt almost like a decadent dessert to the main course.
The crowd Saturday saw no shortage of Skellingtons, the movie’s Pumpkin King protagonist who has grown weary of Halloween and decides to hijack Christmas. They ranged in age from young to young at heart, with costumes coming in various levels of creativity.
Britt Pennella’s rubbery Jack Skellington skull — which fit over his head like a giant pingpong ball — came from Etsy, the handmade and vintage goods website, while his black tuxedo was from Amazon. “I ordered it piece by piece online,” said Pennella, 46, a former teacher in Pacific Palisades. He said it took a few weeks to gather all of the costume elements, including Jack’s spindly hands.
Five-year-old Timothy Hiett wore a Skellington costume that included a white knit cap as his skull head. His mother, Tracy, said she put together the ensemble in just two days at a cost of about $8.
The kindergarten student said “Nightmare” isn’t scary at all and that he’s seen the movie “like 100 times.”
There were also a large number of portrayals of Sally, the female heroine of the movie. Astrid Slotterbeck of Huntington Beach said she spent close to two hours on Saturday putting on her costume and makeup. She said she has seen the movie more than 20 times.
One winner of the costume contest was middleschool teacher Maklynn St. Clare, who came with her sister, Teresa, and partner, Terri, all dressed as the skeletal reindeer that pull Jack’s sleigh.
Their reindeer heads were made of cutup cereal boxes affixed to baseball caps, and the antlers came from a crafts store. They also created special hooves to place over their hands. “It took us all about five days,” said St. Clare, who traveled from Ojai.
Other supporting characters from “Nightmare” on view on Saturday included a few versions of Oogie Boogie, the movie’s burlap-sack villain.
Jordan Shaw of Simi Valley created a giant burlap costume that covered his entire body — except for the holes for his eyes and thumbs. “So I can drink beer,” he explained.
He came to the concert with Nancy Pulver, also of Simi Valley, who dressed as the protagonist from Burton’s 2005 animated movie “The Corpse Bride.” Her creatively decaying costume included real beef bones around her ribs “where she’s supposed to be rotting.”
Clifford Sisneros and Dolores Tejeda of Pasadena took their love of Burton’s 1988 “Beetlejuice” even further. The couple came dressed as the deceased Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) when they disfigure themselves to scare away the living humans who have occupied their house.
They said they spent three hours a night for almost two weeks creating their papier-mâché heads, gluing individual teeth into horrifyingly contorted mouths.
Saturday’s concert began with conductor John Mauceri taking the stage to enthusiastic cheering. The former head conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra was making his first visit to the venue in nearly eight years.
Mauceri led an orchestra and chorus in a new overture to the movie, sampling different motifs from the score.
Elfman saved his entrance for last, sending the audience into a frenzy of cheering and fan worship. The former Oingo Boingo frontman — wearing a black suit, magenta shirt and his trademark thick-framed spectacles — strutted and careened around the stage in character as he reprised his singing voice as Jack Skellington.
The four-time Academy Award-nominated composer sang Jack this year in a Tokyo concert of “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” He has also performed in Burton-themed concerts conducted by Mauceri in cities around the world, most recently in Paris.
The concert included appearances by Paul Reubens and Catherine O’Hara, both Burton veterans who voiced characters in the original “Nightmare” movie.
In a recent interview, Elfman said that he had sworn off live concerts altogether after Oingo Boingo broke up in the ’90s. But he said that singing Jack Skellington makes him feel “kind of wired.”
He added: “There’s going to be a point where I feel trapped, where I know this too well.”
A few Oingo Boingo devotees made their presence known on Saturday. Craig Mackles of Northridge, who wore an Oingo Boingo Tshirt, recalled first seeing the band in the early ’80s and later attending its farewell show in 1995.
“I don’t get to wear this shirt very often,” he said. “But I have the memories.”