Elf, The Musical, The Fifth Ave Theatre

I love going to the December show at the 5^th Ave. It’s usually a Christmas themed show and very festive. I approached this year’s holiday offering with both anticipation and trepidation. Elf is my favorite Christmas movie, the only one I try to watch every year. Would the live show have the charm, sweetness, and hilarity of the movie?

Well, no. The movie is magical and the live musical show was….fine. It was colorful, festive and had with some good moments. But it was missing something.

 The good: I loved the sets and costumes. The North Pole, the elves, New York…it was all colorful and vibrant. The musical numbers were fun if not super memorable. I really enjoyed the number opened the second act, a scene new for the show, set in a Chinese restaurant on Christmas Eve with a bunch of down Santa’s singing “Nobody Cares About Santa.”  It was catchy. There was fun dancing and choreography, and the number emphasized the plot-point of New Yorkers lacking the Christmas spirit. I was dancing along in my seat.

The not so good: A number of plot points from the movie were compressed or changed and some characters were eliminated. This was probably necessary for time, but I feel like the narrative short-cuts really hurt the show.  Given how annoying Buddy can be, the audience really needed more opportunities to see his lovable, fun side and for his family to open up to to him. The relationships just felt rushed. Or perhaps you need an actor with Will Farrell’s charisma and charm to make it work. And while there are a number of funny lines, the actual high jinx from the movie weren’t there: no snowball fight, no mail room.  (How do you not have the mail room scene as a big musical number in a live musical?)

This was a pleasant show, with fun moments, but it felt like a pale shadow of the movie we all know and love.

Elf is showing through December 28.