Thirty years is a long time to keep a holiday show feeling like an event. Trans-Siberian Orchestra has managed it by treating “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve” not as a catalog title to be toured but as a production to be rebuilt — by design, every year, bigger than the last.
About the Show
The 30th anniversary run carries the full title “The Ghosts of Christmas Eve: The Best of TSO and More,” which describes the evening’s shape: the fan-favorite holiday rock opera — the story of a runaway who finds shelter in an abandoned vaudeville theater on Christmas Eve, guided by the building’s caretaker through encounters with the theater’s resident ghosts — followed by a second set of TSO classics and what the band calls “rarely performed gems.” The production brings over-the-top lasers, pyrotechnics, and special effects that have defined this show since the band’s founding in 1996 by the late Paul O’Neill.
The streaming numbers make the case for why this works at arena scale: “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24” is the No. 3 best-selling holiday digital single, with more than 300 million streams and a three-times-platinum RIAA certification. “Christmas Canon” has cleared 250 million streams. TSO has sold more than 20 million tickets and generated over $1 billion in gross revenue through its touring career, while distributing more than $20 million to local charities, with at least $1 per ticket supporting local organizations at each stop.
Music director and guitarist Al Pitrelli, who has overseen this show’s annual rebuilding, put the ethos plainly in tour press: “Thirty years in, we never take a single person in that audience for granted. With the economy the way it is right now, it shouldn’t be a mortgage payment for a family to come out to see us.”
Venue & Logistics
Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Township serves the southern-tier region and is the right scale for a TSO production that travels with full-arena rigging, pyrotechnics, and laser systems. The show runs approximately two and a half hours. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.
Tickets
No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. General on-sale begins September 18; a national pre-sale runs September 17, with fan club members receiving priority access during pre-sales September 10–11. At least $1 per ticket from this stop benefits local charities. Buy tickets