Grand Opera House York – until Friday 3rd December
Review by Zoe Giles
5*****
Elf the Musical is brought to us here in York by the producer who brought us SHREK, The Sound of Music, Ghost and many more West end and Broadway productions NiK Briggs and York stage Ltd is the director. Based on the classic festive favourite film Elf staring Will Ferrell, Elf is the story of an orphan baby who unwittingly sneaks into Santa’s bag one Christmas and gets taken back to the north pole where unaware he is actually a human Buddy is cared for and raised by Santa and the elves. As Buddy continues to grow to an enormous size and his complete inability to work and produce toys to the same quantity or quality of the elves he has to face the truth that he is actually a human, with Santa’s blessing Buddy sets of on the adventure of a life time to New York City to find his birth father and remind him of what Christmas really means and relight his Christmas spirit.
The set designers have obviously put a lot of thought into how to create a winter wonderland and in doing so have created a giant snowball giving the effect that the performers are inside a beautiful snow globe and although the props and set may not be wild or as elaborate as some other shows they certainly set the mood for each section of the story , costume design was incredible so much thought and effort had gone into them especially the “little elves”, along with music from Tony award nominees Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin (The Wedding Singer), with book by Tony Award Winners Thomas Meehan (Annie, The Producers, Hairspray) and Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone)
Damien Poole with his wealth of stage musicals and back ground is totally believable as the lovable elf Buddy, having previously worked for over ten years in the West end in shows such as Grease, Shrek the Musical and Groundhog Day, his energy, movement, comedy and mannerism’s and of course vocals, will keep the audience engaged throughout this stage production.
Very clever and subtle adult and topical humour also pops up from time to time to keep slightly more mature members of the audience engaged and belly laughing as well as the usual Buddy the elf antics and funny moments we have all grown to love from the movie which are cleverly incorporated onto the stage.
The cast are all amazing and have wonderful stage awareness, the way in which they used all of their bodies to implement different movement, dancing, delivery of lines and of course singing, special mention to the young actor playing Buddy’s younger brother Michael who had an outstanding voice defiantly a future west end star in the making. Praise must go to all those behind the scenes such as make up, hair, sound and light technician’s and I’m sure a thousand and one other people who help to make this show truly magical and a great experience for everyone to enjoy.
If you are a fan of the movie Elf you must go and see this magical musical as it is suitable for the whole family to enjoy together it really does get you into the Christmas mood and fill you with Christmas Spirit.