Theater Review: Elf

Elf photo by Joan Marcus.

An Old-Fashioned Musical with Fun for the Whole(some) Family
By Lauren Yarger
While this version, like the film, isn’t quite as funny as you might hope and Buddy (Sebastian Arcelus), a human raised by Santa (George Wendt) and his elves at the North Pole, isn’t quite as silly as he could be, Broadway’s staging of the hit film Elf (the movie stars Will Ferrell) does offer an old-fashioned, colorful holiday musical with a few laughs for the adults and a plot pleasantly devoid of the major angst so common in modern children’s entertainment.

In Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin’s book Buddy discovers why he’s not skilled at toy making and why he towers over the other elves: he’s not one of them. He sets out for New York to find his human father, Walter Hobbs (Mark Jacoby), a publishing executive whose work stress doesn’t leave much time for wife, Emily (Beth Leavel) or son, Michael (Matthew Chumley). Buddy also finds romance with a glum department store elf, Jovie (Amy Spanger). Can Buddy help everyone find Christmas spirit again? Santa’s sleigh might not fly without it.

The tale of Buddy’s quest to fit in and the family’s acceptance of the innocent, sugar-loving, snow-throwing, trouble-causing human-elf unfolds on elaborate colorful sets (David Rockwell, design) with animated projections (Zachary Boroway, design) that give the production the look of a storybook come to life. Director Casey Nicholaw’s fun choreography, Gregg Barnes’ festive costumes and Matthew Skylar’s big-band score with wonderful orchestrations by Doug Besterman, complete an entertaining show that little ones will enjoy. The catchy songs help sustain the plot, though about 20 minutes easily could be cut to shorten the two-and-a-half-hour run time.

The story is entirely predictable, the lyrics (Chad Beguelin) are simple and the humor doesn’t get you laughing out loud much, but it will make you smile in places. It is, after all, a kids’ show and it is really nice to enjoy one without having to encounter some super villain or demonically powered character for a change. Here, the biggest fears come from things like whether the dad will lose his job, whether he’ll be mad when Buddy makes a mistake and whether the mom and dad will get divorced or stop their arguing -- real situations kids have to deal with every day, unfortunately, and to which they can relate.

The show plays a holiday run at the Al Hirschfeld Theater, 302 West 45th St., NYC through Jan. 2. For tickets, visit telecharge.com.

Christians might also like to know:
-- God’s name taken in vain
-- Some sexual references in the dialogue
-- Language
-- I would give it a PG rating.