Review - Elf: Norman, Is That You?

Perhaps the Broadway musical would enjoy a complete and total renaissance of quality if only Thomas Meehan would agree to co-author the book of every new show that hits town. The writer whose main stem debut was the perfectly crafted Annie has gone on to spend the bulk of his career co-authoring with the likes of Mel Brooks, Mark O'Donnell and Lee Adams. And while I'm certainly not dismissing the contributions of his collaborators, the Thomas Meehan name in a Playbill seems to guarantee that no matter how the dialogue and the score turn out, the elements will be housed in a sturdy structure that firmly establishes its story arc, gives us reasons to care about the characters and steadily glides along to a satisfying conclusion.

For a musical adaptation of Elf, a holiday film with - much like the classic Miracle on 34th Street - a bit of an oddball story, Meehan teams up with creators well-experienced in the quirky; co-bookwriter Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone) and The Wedding Singer's pairing of lyricist Chad Beguelin and composer Matthew Sklar. With direction and choreography by Casey Nicholaw, Elf is a slick, professional package of traditional Broadway entertainment; upbeat, funny and tuneful with a contemporary attitude that's light on the syrup. If the evening never dazzles it succeeds in delivering a fun night out.

I doubt if many stage actors can get away with the perpetual perkiness with which the endearing Sebastian Arcelus plays thirty-year-old Buddy, a North Pole resident whose towering presence over his fellow elves and ineptitude at toy-making comes from the fact that he's actually a human who, as an infant, accidentally hitched a ride on Santa's sleigh. When he finds out his mother is long dead and his dad, unaware he fathered a child with her, is a New York children's book publisher with a wife and son, Buddy takes his toothy grin and loveable sincerity to Gotham.

The fish-out-of water comedy may lean on the obvious (Buddy is obsessed with using the office paper shredder; can you guess what happens next?) but an excellent cast plays the piece with gusto and sincerity, though the talents of Mark Jacoby, as his gruff workaholic dad, and Beth Leavel, as his sassy, neglected wife, are severely underutilized.

The musical's Man in Chair narrator is George Wendt, playing Santa Claus with his familiar style of shlubby wisecracking as he complains about his TiVo ("I see one show on global warming and they think I'm Al Gore.") and advises Buddy that the only real Ray's Pizza in New York is the one on 6th Avenue and 11th. (A fact those of us of a certain age will attest to.)

Sklar's music has its moments of traditional holiday cheeriness, which Beguelin occasionally peppers with eyebrow-raising rhymes ("The life here is so Christmas-y it's hard to grow up callous... And since I love St. Nick and the Aurora Borealis...") and there's one very sweet ballad where Buddy's young half-brother, Michael (Matthew Gumley), writes a letter to Santa saying he'll believe in him if his father would spend more time at home. But there's also plenty of catchy Broadway jazz and swing, and the terrific Amy Spanger, as the sullen girl Bobby falls for and tries to fill with holiday spirit, gets a to show off her bluesy/torchy pipes with a knockout rendering of "Never Fall In Love (With An Elf)."

Nicholaw parades his dancers through a series of holiday landmarks with brassy enthusiasm while David Rockwell's colorful sets replicate storybook illustrations in depicting sites such as Macy's, Rockefeller Center and, in one comical scene, a run-down Chinese restaurant where, on Christmas Eve, a chorus of newly unemployed department store Santas get a chance to unwind.

This is the season where it's traditionally wished that the holiday spirit could last throughout the year. While Elf is only in town for a limited holiday run, it would be nice if some of its traditional musical comedy spirit can stick around on Broadway all year, too.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Matthew Gumley and Sebastian Arcelus; Bottom: George Wendt.

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I thought the headline "Precious director Lee Daniels ponders bringing The Scottsboro Boys to the big screen" was kind of inappropriate until I found out Precious was a movie.

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