Colorado Symphony Plays The Nightmare Before Christmas Live at Boettcher

The Colorado Symphony brings Danny Elfman's score back to Boettcher Concert Hall for three Halloween-weekend screenings, starting Thursday.

Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, and the Colorado Symphony has the whole weekend booked. Starting Thursday, Boettcher Concert Hall turns into Halloween Town: Tim Burton's *The Nightmare Before Christmas* on the big screen, with the orchestra playing Danny Elfman's score live underneath it.

There are three chances. The run opens Thursday, Oct. 29 at 7:30 p.m., repeats Friday, Oct. 30 at 7:30 p.m., and ends with a Saturday, Oct. 31 matinee at 2 p.m., early enough to get home for trick-or-treating. It is part of the symphony's Movie at the Symphony series, and tickets are sold through the orchestra's own box office at tickets.coloradosymphony.org.

The format will be familiar to anyone who has caught one of these film nights. The full film is projected over the stage with its dialogue and vocals intact, and the orchestra performs every note of the score live while it plays. In a film like this the music carries the story. The songs drive the plot and the underscore sets every spooky mood and every joke. So the real draw is watching a full symphony orchestra hit those cues exactly on time.

It is also a returning Halloween booking for the orchestra. The Colorado Symphony staged *The Nightmare Before Christmas* in the same room last fall, Oct. 31–Nov. 1, 2025, and the quick return suggests Denver turned up for it.

The run comes early in a season the orchestra has described in terms of momentum. Its 2026/27 season announcement followed a New York City tour the orchestra called a resounding success, and the new season adds a four-concert Thursday-night series at Boettcher called Outside the Box. The orchestra plays Denver more than any other market in our records, more than 500 shows, and Boettcher is where most of them happen. Its in-the-round design puts much of the audience close to the players, and that helps on a film night, when you'll want to look away from the screen and watch the percussion section land a cue.

If a film night has never sounded like "real" symphony to you, this is a good one to start with. It is short and costume-friendly, and it lets a Denver institution show off how precise it can be. Thursday and Friday give you the full evening. Saturday afternoon is the one to bring kids to.

Dates, seating and tickets are on the Colorado Symphony's event page, and the full season is on the orchestra's concert calendar.

Sources: Colorado Symphony tickets — The Nightmare Before Christmas, Movie at the Symphony, Oct 29-31, 2026 (tickets.coloradosymphony.org); Colorado Symphony — Concert Calendar (coloradosymphony.org); Colorado Symphony tickets — Nightmare Before Christmas, Oct 31-Nov 1, 2025 (tickets.coloradosymphony.org); Colorado Symphony — Colorado Symphony Unveils 2026-27 Season as Momentum Builds Following New York Tour (coloradosymphony.org); Boettcher Concert Hall - Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)