Trans-Siberian Orchestra brings ‘The Ghosts of Christmas Eve’ to Wichita

Trans-Siberian Orchestra is throwing a bit of a curveball at its fans with this year’s edition of its popular holiday tour.

For the first time since the combination rock group/orchestra began doing its annual Christmas tours, it is not featuring one of the albums from its popular Christmas trilogy – “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” (1996), “The Christmas Attic” (1998) and “The Lost Christmas Eve” (2004).

Instead, TSO will perform its one Christmas work that never made it to CD – and never has been performed live on tour – “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve.” The group performs two shows at Intrust Bank Arena on Dec. 22.

“I’ve always liked it,” TSO founder Paul O’Neill said in a late-October teleconference interview. “It’s a little gem. It’s fun to watch it at home with your family. But live, there’s an excitement where you pick up the energy of the person in front of you, to the left of you, to the right of you. We decided if we were ever going to do ‘The Ghosts of Christmas Eve’ live, it was this year or not at all, so we decided to go for it.”

Deciding what Christmas album to use as the centerpiece of this year’s tour presented a bit of a quandary for O’Neill and his team. Last year the group performed “The Christmas Attic” – the last of the Christmas trilogy albums to have been used as the centerpiece of a holiday tour. So there wasn’t an obvious candidate to feature among the trilogy albums.

Plus, the choice for the 2016 tour is pretty obvious. “Next year is the 20th anniversary of ‘Christmas Eve and Other Stories,’ ” O’Neil said. “So obviously, we’re going to do something big for that.”

When a manager on the TSO team suggested “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve,” it seemed like the perfect choice for this year’s holiday tour. The project came about quickly, and as somewhat of a surprise, three years after O’Neill and TSO had been signed by Atlantic Records.

The Fox television network had taken notice of the emerging success of Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

“Originally, we did (‘The Ghosts of Christmas Eve’) in 1999 when we got a call from Fox, who had a small, I think, one-hour mini-movie drop out on Dec. 2,” O’Neill said. “They asked us if they could film the band for an hour doing ‘Beethoven’s Last Night,’ which we had just completed. I said, ‘If you give me an hour, I’ll give you a mini-movie.’ They’re like, ‘Do you have a script?’ and I’m like, ‘I’ll write it tonight.’ I just quickly scripted together this little thing, where a 15-year-old ends up breaking into this old vaudeville theater. She’s a runaway. There, she’s discovered by the caretaker, who uses the ghosts and the spirits from the theater to turn her life around.”

Fox liked the concept.

“They were able to get the legendary Ossie Davis to play the caretaker, and people like Jewel and Michael Crawford were kind enough to share their talents and play the ghosts,” he said. “It was only supposed to run once and never again, but it did so well, Fox ran it multiple times. Then it’s basically run on various stations ever since. The DVD has gone multi-platinum.”

Since “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve” aired, TSO has gone on to become a major success, with “Christmas Eve and Other Stories,” a triple-platinum hit, leading the way.

Its annual Christmas tour is easily the most popular holiday tour going. It went straight to arenas its first year (1999) and last year grossed $51 million. This year, the two touring companies of TSO will play 60-plus cities (with a matinee and evening show on many of the tour stops).

The show will again deliver what is arguably the biggest visual spectacle of any concert, featuring all manner of lights, lasers and pyrotechnics to go with the music. Living up to – and exceeding – the standards set by previous tours has become an annual challenge.

“Basically, at the end of every tour, we start again, so that next year there’s something new for the eye,” O’Neill said. “Human beings, we’re strange creatures. We like the comfort of the familiar, but we like the excitement.”

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Trans-Siberian Orchestra brings ‘The Ghosts of Christmas Eve’ to Wichita."