# The Nightmare Before Christmas should be on Broadway! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 8, 2002, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nightmare-before-christmas-should-be-on-broadway/141287 "2002-12-08T09:06:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nightmare-before-christmas-should-be-on-broadway/141287/1 "2002-12-08T09:06:09Z")
Personally, I think that stage-musicals are probably the greatest art form that there is, and that The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of the greatest movie-musicals ever. So, who agrees that TNBC would be a great broadway show? Or at the very least, who agrees that the movie was great? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nightmare-before-christmas-should-be-on-broadway/141287/2 "2002-12-08T18:10:21Z")
Well, I definately agree that it was a great movie (thought it was really just the songs that made the movie, Tim Burton can kiss my ass), but unfortunately, living in NC, I don’t make it to many Broadway plays so I can’t really judge if it would translate well. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nightmare-before-christmas-should-be-on-broadway/141287/3 "2002-12-08T18:10:54Z")
While the movie was certainly good, and the music was catchy enough, I’m not sure how well it would translate to the stage. None of the main characters was really quite human. Jack, for instance: Ordinarily, he looks like a gaunt skeleton, but in the fight with the Boogie Man, he moves like a spider… While still looking like the same character. Or what’s-her-name unsewing her arm, or the Mad Scientist giving his next creation a piece of his mind… There’d have to be an awful lot of adaptation going on. Admittedly, the cast of _Lion King_ or _Cats_ isn’t human, either, and those work on stage, but it seems like it would be easier to present an animal, than something which is almost but not quite human. There’s also the problem that _The Nightmare Before Christmas_ is very definitely seasonal (even if it’s not quite clear which season it is), and Broadway plays tend to run for years continuously. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nightmare-before-christmas-should-be-on-broadway/141287/4 "2002-12-08T18:17:45Z")
No, no, _no_. Stage musicals are a dying artform in large part because there are fewer and fewer _new_ musicals being produced and more and more “Let’s take a movie musical and see if we can stuff it onto a stage, somehow” musicals (like the utterly dreadful “Thoroughly Modern Millie”) What we need is more original musicals: West Side Story, Guys and Dolls, Fiddler On the Roof, etc and less “Rip-off-icals” Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Osbie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/cdc98d/32.png) [@Osbie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osbie)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nightmare-before-christmas-should-be-on-broadway/141287/5 "2002-12-08T18:57:25Z")
I disagree **Fenris** - a good story can be found anywhere - original or not. It’s also fun to watch something you’ve experienced in one medium (book, movie, play) and see how someone has converted it to another one. (That being said, there’s certainly nothing wrong with encouraging originality either!) As far as _Nightmare_ goes, I think the sets, costumes, and lighting would be a fun challenge for a designer. I don’t remember being that blown away by the movie (but that’s just me). ---
**Author:** ![TheeGrumpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheeGrumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheeGrumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nightmare-before-christmas-should-be-on-broadway/141287/6 "2002-12-08T19:41:37Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by **Chronos** : > None of the main characters was really quite human. Jack, for instance: Ordinarily, he looks like a gaunt skeleton, but in the fight with the Boogie Man, he moves like a spider. It’s the role [Tommy Tune](http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Stage/1483/tomslow.jpg) was born to play, baby! ---
**Author:** ![TheeGrumpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheeGrumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheeGrumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nightmare-before-christmas-should-be-on-broadway/141287/7 "2002-12-08T19:44:33Z")
Crap. Here’s another [link](http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Stage/1483/photos.html). Let’s see if it works. ---
**Author:** ![Blackeyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@Blackeyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackeyes)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nightmare-before-christmas-should-be-on-broadway/141287/8 "2002-12-08T21:21:46Z")
No way, man. The movie rocked but there’s no way you can expect it to translate well to the stage. The only way TNBC could work is with the format it used, Broadway is much too limiting. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nightmare-before-christmas-should-be-on-broadway/141287/9 "2002-12-08T21:52:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Octavia Smythe-Bunion I. Esq. \* > \*\*I disagree **Fenris** - a good story can be found anywhere - original or not. It’s also fun to watch something you’ve experienced in one medium (book, movie, play) and see how someone has converted it to another one. (That being said, there’s certainly nothing wrong with encouraging originality either!) \*\* I don’t mind drawing from other source material: _Guys and Dolls_ and _Damn Yankees_ came from books (_tons_ of musicals came from books), chunks of _Kiss me Kate_ came from a play, non-musical movies have been successfully turned into musicals (_The Philidelphia Story_ became _High Society_. but I’m sick of movie-musicals being turned into stage musicals, and with a very few exceptions, I don’t think they work at all. The main reason is that most movie-musicals don’t last long enough and don’t have enough songs. Broadway productions last 2-3 hours and generally have a miniumum of about 12 songs. Movie musicals last about 1.5 hours and have roughly 6 songs. Invariably, extra songs have to be shoehorned in and they _neve_ fit right (the ripped-off Gilbert and Sullivan song and a bunch of lame extra songs in _Thoroughly Rotten Millie_, about 5 songs (including _Fascinating Rhythm!!!_) that were crammed into the Tommy Steele’s _Singing in the Rain_, about 5 extra (and forgettable) songs for _Seven Brides for Seven Brothers_, I could go on and on.) There’s what? six or seven songs in _Nightmare_? Will Elfman have any interest in adding a minimum of 6 _more_ songs? I doubt it. So someone else will write some songs that’ll be there just for padding. Or worse: they’ll just grab random songs, maybe by Oingo Boingo and cram 'em in.:rolleyes: On the other hand, they’ve already strip-mined most of the popular original movie musicals _anyway_ (I mean, good crap: they strip-mined _Footloose_. You can’t get much lower than that.) Unless they’re going for the _really_ obscure stuff (anyone else remember _Aaron Slick from Punkin’ Creek_: How’d you like to see _that_ as a stage musical?) So, with the exception of Disney, they’ve _mostly_ used up their source of material. Although, that said, I agree that it would be _cool_ to see Tommy Tune try to do Jack Skellington. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Osbie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/cdc98d/32.png) [@Osbie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osbie)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2002, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nightmare-before-christmas-should-be-on-broadway/141287/10 "2002-12-08T23:02:15Z")
[fetal position] AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! Thank you so much for reminding me of _Footloose_! The horror… the horror… [/fetal position] You have a definite point about having to insert extra songs, but just because it’s been unsuccessful X% of the time doesn’t mean it will always be so (though discerning investors might be hesitant). Whether it would work for _Nightmare_, I could not say. Oh, and I’ve never heard of _Aaron Slick from Punkin’ Creek_. Considering my absolute loathing of the word “punkin”, I’m just going to maintain my ignorance about this one. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nightmare-before-christmas-should-be-on-broadway/141287/11 "2002-12-09T00:09:36Z")
**Octavia**. meet me [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=148960): I wanna reply without further hijacking this thread. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2002, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-nightmare-before-christmas-should-be-on-broadway/141287/12 "2002-12-09T04:13:53Z")
Fenris > [@](#): > > There’s what? six or seven songs in Nightmare? There are 20 tracks on the soundtrack, of which at least ten have strong vocals or are full-blown songs: This is Halloween; Jack’s Lament; What’s This?; Town Meeting Song; Jack’s Obsession; Kidnap the Sandy Claus; Making Christmas; Oogie Boogie’s Song; Sally’s Song; and Poor Jack. I agree, however, that the overall length of the source material would not be enough to sustain a full-length show. The movie is only about 75 minutes long and I would have absolutely no interest in enduring extra material created just for the purpose of wringing a stage show out of it, although I would be fascinated to see someone attempt to stage and costume some of the numbers.