Review: ELF THE MUSICAL, Dominion Theatre

When Elf The Musical last set foot in London, the critics noted its family appeal, the syrupy content and the extortionate ticket prices. Has much changed this time around?

Well, kind of. Perhaps in recognition of the cost of living crisis, instead of the £240 demanded for a stalls seat in 2015, the Dominion Theatre will now only ask you for "just" £195, and that's before forking out for drinks, snacks and a programme. Elf The Musical may not be cheap but it is cheerful, stocked as it is with a cloying cocktail of a jolly Santa, cute elves, first love, a new family coming together, snow flurries from the ceiling and plenty of Christmas tidings.

The plot roughly follows that of the 2003 film with Will Ferrell in the title role. One Christmas, baby Buddy crawls into Santa's sack and ends up working in the North Pole elf-powered toy factory. At the tender age of 30, adult Buddy (Simon Lipkin in a red wig that even Michael Fabricant would c*ckan eye at) realises that he is, unlike his much smaller colleagues, actually a human. This prompts a confession about his origins from Santa who sends him south to his father Walter in New York. Along the way, he falls for Jovie while working at Macy's and thrusts himself into his father's family and work life, blasting silliness and curiosity everywhere he goes.

Even without the extra subplots revolving around Santa's underpowered sleigh and Michael's search for the Great American Children's Novel, there's plenty of story to go around and arguably too much even for the two-hour-plus runtime. It doesn't help that writers Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin are too busy taking potshots at New Jersey and Vermont, referencing their Yuletide inspirations - here a White Christmas, there A Miracle on 34th Street - and namechecking famous New York eateries like Tavern On The Green to bother too much about such fine details as characterisation or plot.

Georgina Castle's Jovie is a one-note love interest who goes from crabby to completely captivated in the space of a couple of songs while only the excellent Tom Chambers as the initially reticent Walter has much of an arc.

Lipkin is in practically every scene and, appropriately enough for someone working for CBBC when he was first asked about this show, inhabits Buddy's "eternal kid" persona with admirable zeal. He bounces from scene to scene and, whether eating spaghetti with maple syrup with his new half-brother or rollerskating around Central Park - he brings buckets of charm to the role. He occasionally veers into "coked-up man-child" territory but reins it in enough to show different sides to the faux-elf. Unfortunately, Meehan and Martin's scattershot approach to storylines gives Buddy too little time to build enough chemistry with Jovie or Walter for us to truly care too much about those relationships.

For their part, Matthew Sklar (music) and Chad Beguelin (lyrics) raid the local cheese counter for numbers which are wonderfully loud and fun but shallower than an August puddle. You probably won't walk out singing any of the songs but they're jolly enough in the moment. Tim Goodchild's set design is impressive in scale and detail, Liam Steel's choreography is eye-catching (especially for the bigger numbers) and director Philip Wm. McKinley moves the action along at a child-friendly pace.

There are many false pretenders to the throne of Christmas' holy stage trinity of A Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker and Handel's Messiah and to that list we can Elf The Musical which, despite its highly seasonal story and family-friendly content, could do with some dramatic roughage to be taken as a serious contender.

"You will go through life sometimes feeling like you are an other." Read our interview with Simon Lipkin.

Elf The Musical continues at Dominion Theatre until 7 January 2023.

Photo credit: Mark Senior

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