Somehow, the 5th Avenue Theatre seems to know just what you want in your stocking every year for the holidays. This year, it’s ELF – The Musical (through December 31), which brings the Will Farrell film to the stage. The story won’t change your life, but ELF has multi-level humor that will appeal to adults and kids, the right amount of sweetness, and the perfect cast to make your holidays happy and bright.
Matt Owen plays Buddy, the human who, as a baby, crawls into Santa’s bag at the end of his Christmas run and unwittingly smuggles himself to the North Pole. We know this because Santa, played with an endearing, weary charm by the always wonderful Seán Griffin, is reading the story to us.
Buddy is raised by the elves as one of their own, blissfully unaware that he seems to be the Shaquille O’Neal of the workshop (“Christmastown”). Someone lets the cat out of the bag, and Buddy heads to New York City to find his real dad. His expectations, laid out in the “The World’s Greatest Dad,” are…pretty high.
Like Farrell, Owen plays Buddy with a wink-free, wide-eyed, open-mouthed wonder. A strong singer and capable dancer, he draws us in with his guileless innocence. The production number “Sparklejollytwinklejingley” at Macy’s (one of the sponsors of this 5th Avenue production) shows off his showstopping skills as a song-and-dance man. That scene, even so, is stolen by Cynthia Jones as the store manager. She lights up the stage brighter than any string of Christmas lights.
The best number, by far, is “Nobody Cares About Santa.” On Christmas Eve, the department store Santas gather at a diner to kibbutz about the lack of respect they get, as they launch into what feels like the lost Santa scene from an early draft of Chicago — muted trumpets and Fosse jazz hands galore. It brought down the house.
Allen Fitzpatrick did his best Steve Ballmer impression as Buddy’s real dad. Not sure if that characterization and look was intentional, but it was amusing against the overt Apple product placements in the show. (Santa’s list is currently kept on a iPad. I hope he has that backed-up in iCloud.) As Buddy’s jaded love interest, Jovie, Kendra Kassebaum shows off her comedic timing and vocal range in “Never Fall in Love (with an Elf).” Duly noted.
Will the cast find enough Christmas spirit to help power Santa’s sleigh — which has gotten stuck in Central Park (much like it got stuck in the sand in my favorite holiday move, Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny?) You’ll have to come to the show to find out…here’s betting you’ll be glad you did.