Leavel, Jacoby, Wendt & More to Star in ELF on Broadway; Production Team Announced

Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures in association with Unique Features announced today that the new Broadway musical ELF will star Tony® Award winner Beth Leavel (Emily), Tony® Award nominee Mark Jacoby (Walter), Matthew Gumley (Michael), Valerie Wright (Deb), Michael McCormick (Mr. Greenway), Michael Mandell (Store Manager) and six-time Emmy® Award winner George Wendt (Santa). Full casting including the lead roles of Buddy and Jovie will be announced shortly.

Based on the beloved 2003 New Line Cinema hit, ELF will feature songs by Tony Award nominees Matthew Sklar 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).

The company will also include Timothy J. Alex, Callie Carter, Cara Cooper, Lisa Gadja, Asmeret Ghebremichael, Blake Hammond, Emily Hsu, Jenny Hill, Nancy Johnston, Marc Kessler, Matt Loehr, Lee Wilkins, and Kirsten Wyatt.

Scenic design for ELF is by Tony-nominee David Rockwell (Hairspray, Legally Blonde), costume design is by Tony Award winner Gregg Barnes (The Drowsy Chaperone, Legally Blonde), lighting design is by two-time Tony Award-winner Natasha Katz (Aida, The Coast of Utopia) and sound design is by Tony nominee Peter Hylenski (Rock of Ages, Lend Me a Tenor). ELF will feature orchestrations by three-time Tony Award-winner Doug Besterman (The Producers, Thoroughly Modern Millie).

ELF will open on Sunday, November 14th (REVISED OPENING DATE) at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre (302 West 45th Street) and previews will begin on Tuesday, November 2nd. The production will play a limited engagement for the holiday season through Sunday, January 2nd.

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.

BIOS:

Beth Leavel (Emily) is currently starring on Broadway as Donna Sheridan in Mamma Mia! She received Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and L.A. Drama Critics Circle awards for the title role in The Drowsy Chaperone. Beth recently starred in Into the Woods, Annie and the world premiere of Minsky's. Other Broadway: Young Frankenstein, 42nd Street original and revival casts, Crazy for You original cast, The Civil War, Hal Prince's Show Boat. NY/Off-Broadway: No, No, Nanette (City Center Encores!); Lone Star Love; The Jazz Singer; An Unfinished Song. Regional: A Little Night Music, Mame. TV: "Ryan's Hope," Nickelodeon, "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," the final episode of "ER," ABC's "The Unusuals." MFA from UNC-G, proud member AEA.

Mark Jacoby (Walter) Broadway: original Father, Ragtime; Gaylord Ravenal, Showboat (Tony, Outer Critics and Joseph Jefferson Award nominations); the Phantom, The Phantom of the Opera; Baron von Gaigern, Grand Hotel; Vittorio Vidal, Sweet Charity (Theatre World Award), Padre Perez, Man of La Mancha, Judge Turpin, Sweeney Todd. Off-Broadway: the Playwright, Enter the Guardsmen (Drama Desk nomination). Regional: Peter Dummermut, The Visit (Goodman Theatre, world premiere); Guido Contini, Nine (Chicago premiere, Joseph Jefferson Award); Oscar Jaffe, On the Twentieth Century (Goodspeed Opera House, Connecticut Drama Critics Award); Robert, Robert and Elizabeth (Paper Mill Playhouse inaugural production).

Matthew Gumley (Michael) Broadway: Addams Family (Original Broadway Cast), Mary Poppins (Original Broadway Cast), Beauty and the Beast (Chip). Off-Broadway: Distracted (Roundabout, starring alongside Cynthia Nixon). Regional: The Music Man (California Music Circus). Film: Artie Lang's "Beer League" and upcoming "Summer Child." TV: "Law & Order: SVU," "Drake and Josh," "Dora The Explorer" (voice of Benny the Bull, regular), "The Wonder Pets (recurring)," and "All My Children." Matthew has also performed on "The View," "The Daily Show," "Good Morning America," "Live with Regis and Kelly" and "The Late Show with David Letterman."

Valerie Wright (Deb) Valerie has originated the Broadway companies of Song And Dance, Steel Pier and Annie Get Your Gun. Other Broadway credits include Cats, Sally Marr And Her Escorts and Damn Yankees. Off Broadway includes Showing Off, The World Goes 'Round and Wanda's World. Some favorite regional credits are On The Town at Arena Stage, Pajama Game and Redhead, both at Goodspeed Opera House, Three at the Ahmanson Theater, Peter Pan at The Muny and Sweet Charity, Barrington Stage Co. National Tours include Hello Dolly, Song And Dance, The World Goes 'Round (Jefferson award, Helen Hayes nomination) and Damn Yankees (Helen Hayes nomination). Films and TV includes Sleepless In Seattle, Ordinary Heroes, You Look Just Like Him and "All My Children." Valerie has appeared in Concert with Marvin Hamlisch and wrote the music and lyrics to a children's album entitled Green Beans On The Floor.

Michael McCormick (Mr. Greenway) Broadway: Curtains (Oscar Shapiro); How the Grinch Stole Christmas; The Pajama Game; Kiss Me Kate (1st Gangster); 1776 (John Adams); Sam Mendes' Gypsy; Marie Christine; Kiss of the Spider Woman; La Bete. Recent Off-B'way: Tin Pan Alley Rag (Roundabout); A Man of No Importance (LTC). City Center Encores! (most recent) Fanny and Babes in Arms. Nat'l Tours: The Producers (Franz Leibkind); Les Miserables (Thenardier). Recent TV: all three of the "Law & Order" series, "Candide." Film: The Producers; A Very Serious Person. Member of AEA since his 1965 Broadway debut in Oliver! in this theatre.

Michael Mandell (Store Manager) Broadway: Big River, A Christmas Carol. National tour: It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues. Off-Broadway: Macinal, Blood Wedding, and Romance in Hard Times (NYSF), Fables in Slang (Melting Pot), Hit the Lights (Vineyard Theatre), A New Brain (Lincoln Center Theatre), Captains Courageous (Ford Theatre), Miss Ever's Boys (Alabama Shakespeare Festival), Twist (Walnut Street Theater), Triumph of Love (Cleveland Playhouse), The Fantastiks (Portland Center Stage), Amadeus (Denver Theater Center), The Boys from Syracuse (Alliance Theater) and The Boys Next Door (Philadelphia Drama Guild). TV includes "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," "Ed," "Law & Order: SVU," "Ugly Betty" and "Guiding Light." Film includes I Love You Philip Morris, Choose, Come Away with Me, Joe's Apartment and Anger Management.

George Wendt (Santa) is best known to television audiences as Norm Peterson from "Cheers." The role earned Wendt six Emmy nominations. George began his career with The Second City, Chicago's famed improvisational company. His feature film credits include Forever Young, Guilty by Suspicion, Fletch, Gung Ho, Rupert's Land and Outside Providence. Wendt recently starred in the national tour of Twelve Angry Men and starred in London's West End and on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning musical Hairspray (as Edna) and the Tony Award-winning play Art. He appeared in Minsky's at the Ahmanson in Los Angeles, where he first worked with book writer Bob Martin and director Casey Nicholaw. He also appeared in the critically acclaimed stage production of David Mamet's Lakeboat, which was directed by Joe Mantegna, and frequently performs onstage in New York, Los Angeles and his native Chicago. In the summer of 1989, Wendt traveled to the USSR to portray the title role of Oblomov in a BBC adaptation of Ivan Goncharov's novel. Wendt is married to Bernadette Birkett, who co-starred on the comedy series "It's Garry Shandling's Show." They currently live in Los Angeles with their four sons and one daughter.

David Rockwell (Scenic Designer) designed the sets for Hairspray (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations), Legally Blonde The Musical (Drama Desk nomination), Free Man of Color; The Rocky Horror Show (Drama Desk Nomination), All Shook Up (Drama Desk Nomination), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Armed and Naked in America, Omnium Gatherum, and, for film, Team America. He is the founder of Rockwell Group, a New York-based architecture and design firm. Projects include the Kodak Theatre, the 2009 and 2010 Emmy-nominated set designs for the Academy Awards, Maialino at the Gramercy Park Hotel, the Walt Disney Family Museum, Adour Alain Ducasse at The St. Regis New York, JetBlue's Terminal 5 at the JFK International Airport; "Hall of Fragments" at the 2008 Venice Architecture Biennale; Imagination Playground; the Elinor Bunin-Munroe Film Center at Lincoln Center; W New York and Union Square; Aloft hotels; Nobu Fifty Seven and Nobu Dubai. Rockwell was honored with the Pratt Institute Legends Award in 2009, and Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt's National Design Award for Interior Design in 2008.

Gregg Barnes (Costume Design) Broadway: Legally Blonde (2007 Tony nomination), The Drowsy Chaperone (2006 Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Award, Olivier nomination), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Flower Drum Song (Tony nomination), Side Show, Bye Bye Birdie, To Be or Not To Be. New York: Anyone Can Whistle, Follies, No, No, Nanette (Encores!), Sinatra (Radio City Music Hall), The Wizard of Oz (Madison Square Garden), Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular (principal designer 1994-2005), Cinderella and The Merry Widow (New York City Opera), Pageant (the Blue Angel and London's West End, Olivier nomination), The Kathy and Mo Show. London: The Drowsy Chaperone (Olivier Nomination), Legally Blonde. Regional: Robin and the Seven Hoods (Old Globe), Minsky's! (Ahmanson), Peep Show (Las Vegas), Mame (Kennedy Center). Gregg was the first recipient of the Theatre Development Fund's Young Master Award.

Natasha Katz (Lighting Design) has designed extensively for the theatre, opera and dance. Her recent Broadway credits include The Addams Family, Collected Stories, Impressionism, Hedda Gabler, The Little Mermaid, The Coast of Utopia/Salvage (Tony Award), A Chorus Line revival, Spelling Bee, Tarzan, Aida (Tony Award), Sweet Smell of Success, Twelfth Night, Dance of Death, Beauty and the Beast, The Capeman and Gypsy. Other designs: Sister Act in London; Buried Child at the National Theatre in London; Cyrano for the Metropolitan Opera; Tryst for the Royal Ballet; Carnival of the Animals at New York City Ballet; Swan Lake at the Edinburgh Festival; Don Quixote for American Ballet Theatre; concert acts for Shirley MacLaine, Ann-Margret and Tommy Tune. Ms. Katz has designed extensively Off-Broadway and for American regional theatres.

Peter Hylenski (Sound Design) Grammy, Tony and Olivier Award nominated. Selected Broadway: Shrek the Musical, Rock of Ages, Lend Me A Tenor, Cry-Baby, The Times They Are A-Changin', The Wedding Singer, Sweet Charity, Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me, Little Women, Brooklyn. Other credits: Le Reve, Wynn Las Vegas; Ragtime (West End);Walking With Dinosaurs; Mame; Opening Doors; The Scottsboro Boys; Annie. He's designed for Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden and the Kennedy Center.