ELF to Play Al Hirschfeld Theatre this Holiday Season; Opens Nov. 10, 2010

This holiday season, Broadway will receive the greatest gift of all - a new musical. Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures in association with Unique Features announced today that the new Broadway musical ELF will open on Wednesday, November 10th at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street). Previews will begin on Tuesday, November 2nd. The production will play a limited engagement for the holiday season through Sunday, January 2nd.

Based on the beloved 2003 New Line Cinema hit which starred Will Ferrell in the title role, ELF will feature songs by Tony Award nominees Matthew Sklar (Music) and Chad Beguelin (The Wedding Singer), with a book by Tony Award winners Thomas Meehan (The Producers, Hairspray) and Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone). ELF will be directed and choreographed by Tony nominee Casey Nicholaw (The Drowsy Chaperone, Monty Python's Spamalot).

Additional creative team members and casting will be announced at a later date.

ELF is the hilarious tale of Buddy, a young orphan child who mistakenly crawls into Santa's bag of gifts and is transported back to the North Pole. Buddy is raised unaware that he is actually a human, until his enormous size and poor toy-making abilities cause him to face the truth. With Santa's permission, Buddy embarks on a journey to New York City to find his birth father and discover his true identity. Faced with the harsh reality that his father is on the naughty list and his step-brother doesn't even believe in Santa, Buddy is determined to win over his new family and help New York remember the true meaning of Christmas. This modern day Christmas classic is sure to make everyone embrace their inner ELF.

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WARNER BROS. THEATRE VENTURES (Producer) is the live stage play division of Warner Bros. Entertainment and responsible for developing and producing world-class musicals and other stage productions for the Studio. The division currently has 15 licensed properties in production worldwide and more than a dozen other projects in various stages of development, including co-productions with award-winning Broadway and film producers. WBTV's parent company, WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT, a Time Warner Company, is a fully integrated, broad-based entertainment company and a global leader in the creation, production, distribution, licensing and marketing of all forms of creative content and their related businesses, across all current and emerging media and platforms. The company stands at the forefront of every aspect of the entertainment industry from feature film, TV and home entertainment production and worldwide distribution to DVD, digital distribution, animation, comic books, licensing and broadcasting.

UNIQUE FEATURES (Producer) Unique Features, a new independent company that will be producing two to three movies a year, was launched in 2008 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne, who together built New Line Cinema into an industry powerhouse. The company has a three-year first-look agreement with Warner Bros. and is currently developing and producing several projects, including an adaptation of Paul McCartney's "High in the Clouds," with original music by McCartney; and trilogies based on Cassandra Clare's young-adult fantasy "The Mortal Instruments" and Maggie Stiefvater's "Shiver"; as well as two stage musicals, Elf and Secondhand Lions.

Thomas Meehan (Book) won the 2003 Tony Award for co-writing, with Mark O'Donnell, the book for Hairspray after having won the 2001 Tony Award for co-writing the book, with Mel Brooks, of The Producers. He received his first Tony Award in 1977 for writing the book of Annie, which was his first Broadway show, and he has since written books for the musicals I Remember Mam; Ain't Broadway Grand; Annie Warbucks and the American version of Bombay Dreams. His most recent works are the Broadway musicals Young Frankenstein, for which he co-wrote the book with Mel Brooks, and Cry-Baby, co-written with Mark O'Donnell. In addition, he is a long-time contributor of humor pieces, including Yma Dream, to The New Yorker; an Emmy Award-winning writer of television comedy; and a collaborator on a number of screenplays, including Mel Brooks' Spaceballs; To Be or Not to Be and the film version of The Producers. He is also, with the poet J.D. McClatchy, the co-author of the libretto of 1984, an opera composed by Lorin Maazel, based on George Orwell's classic novel, which had its world premiere in the spring of 2005 at London's Royal Opera House and was performed last year at La Scala, in Milan. Mr. Meehan is a member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild.

Bob MartIN (Book) has been working as an actor and writer in Canadian theatre, film and television for 3 decades. He has had a long association with the Toronto Second City, where he co-wrote and performed in four Second City revues, directed three, and had a stint as Artistic Director. He is a co-creator of The Drowsy Chaperone, and has performed in many of its incarnations: Toronto Fringe, Theatre Passe Muraille (Toronto), Winter Garden (Toronto), Ahmanson Theatre (Los Angeles), Marquis Theatre (Broadway), Novello (London). Bob won a number of awards for his work on Drowsy including an LA Drama Critics Circle Award, an L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Award, a Drama Desk Award, a Theatre World Award, and a Tony Award. He is also co-creator of "Slings & Arrows," a critically acclaimed dramatic series about life at a large not for profit theatre company, which was recently named one of the ten best TV shows of the decade by a number of publications including New York Magazine. As well as Elf, Bob's recent work includes Minsky's (music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Sue Birkenhead), a musical about burlesque in 1930's New York which he hopes will come to Broadway in the Spring of 2011.

Matthew Sklar (Music) received a Tony Award nomination (Best Original Score) and a Drama Desk nomination (Outstanding Music) for his work on The Wedding Singer. He co-produced the show's original Broadway cast recording for Sony/BMG Masterworks Broadway. Matthew is a recipient of the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theatre Award and the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award. In addition to his work as a composer, Matthew has been a pianist, conductor, and/or arranger for more than a dozen Broadway productions including Shrek; Caroline, or Change; Nine; 42nd Street; Titanic; Miss Saigon; and Les Misérables. He has also contributed original music to the hit Nickelodeon television series "Wonder Pets."

Chad Beguelin (Lyrics) Chad Beguelin is the Tony Award Nominated bookwriter and lyricist of "The Wedding Singer", which premiered on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. Along with his writing partner Matthew Sklar, Chad has also written "The Rhythm Club" (Signature Theater Company), "Wicked City" (American Stage Company, Mason Street Warehouse) and various projects for Disney. Chad has been the recipient of The Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Award, The Edward Kleban Award for Outstanding Lyric Writing and the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theater Award. He was also nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics, as well as a Tony Award for Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical for "The Wedding Singer". He currently lives in New York with his partner Tom and their Yorkshire Terrier Bailey.

Casey Nicholaw (Director/Choreographer) received 2006 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for his work on The Drowsy Chaperone, and 2005 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Choreography for Monty Python's Spamalot, directed by Mike Nichols. Additional New York credits: for City Center Encores! - the highly acclaimed productions of Anyone Can Whistle and Follies (direction and choreography), Bye Bye Birdie (choreography) and Can-Can (musical staging); for N.Y. Philharmonic - Candide; South Pacific at Carnegie Hall (also on PBS Great Performances), Sinatra: His Voice, His World, His Way at Radio City Music Hall starring the world-famous Rockettes. Current projects include Robin and the 7 Hoods at The Old Globe this Summer as well as the new musicals Minsky's and Elf.