Review Roundup: West End's ELF

ELF opened at London's Dominion Theatre on 5 November for a strictly limited 10-week season until 2 January 2016.

The company is led by Ben Forster as Buddy, Kimberley Walsh as Jovie, Joe McGann as Walter Hobbs and Jessica Martin as Emily Hobbs, withJennie Dale as Deb, Mark McKerracher as Santa and Graham Lappin as Store Manager. Also in the cast are Katie Bradley, Charlie Bull, Nicola Coates, Alex Fobbester, Anton Fosh, Charlotte Gale, Francis Haugen, Matt Holland,Tash Holway, Paul Hutton, Mark Iles, Ceili O'Connor, Debbie Paul, Joanna Rennie, Barnaby Thompson and Ed White. Harry Collett, Ilan Galkoff, Noah Key and Ewan Rutherford will alternate the role of Michael.

Let's see what the critics had to say:

Natalie O'Donoghue, BroadwayWrold.com: The casting for Elf is as close to perfect as you can imagine.Ben Forster manages to portray the very excitable Buddy with great humour that doesn't grate on the audience. He has a number of big belting songs and is more than capable of delivering them. Kimberley Walsh also has an incredible voice and is the perfect fit for cynical and sarcastic Jovie. The script is hilarious and contains some excellent one-liners.

Daisy Bowie-Sell, WhatsOnStage: Here, Ben Forster is the show's saving grace. Kooky, gawky, excitable and enthusiastic, Forster taps into a similar off-beat humour that Ferrell did. He delivers the jokes for the adults with a dead-pan innocence ('I'd love to put you on top of my Christmas tree!') and he can certainly sing. His was the voice that won Andrew Lloyd Webber's Superstar, the TV search for that other Christmas icon, Jesus. But it's the comedy that he excels at here, and which will woo even the most bah humbug of audience members.

Michael Billington, The Guardian: The saving grace for me is Ben Forster, winner of ITV's talent-spotting Superstar, as Buddy. He bounds through the evening with an anarchic glee that suggests he would be a perfect Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, sings the mostly anodyne songs with total conviction and has the priceless knack of getting on terms with an audience. That gift has sadly not been conferred on Kimberley Walsh who, for all her fame with Girls Aloud, cuts a curiously distant figure as Buddy's joyless girl-friend, Jovie. But there is staunch support from Joe McGann, who bears an astonishing resemblance to Harold Evans, as the waspish Walter.

Quentin Letts, Daily Mail: Elements of Scrooge and Crocodile Dundee combine to make a vaguely familiar brew with some Manhattan wiseguy stereotypes, middling tunes, a vast dollop of corn and a couple of chorus-line routines, one of which has lots of Santas bouncing on Space Hoppers. Director Morgan Young has drilled his troops efficiently.

Ann Treneman, The Times: This is, truly, the Christmas cake of musicals. Director and choreographer Morgan Young and designer Tim Goodchild have thrown everything in... There's a wow factor to some of the musical numbers, such as when Buddy and Jovie make a song and dance about decorating Macy's, with a number called "Sparklejollytwinklejingley" (don't ask, only elves understand)... It has, in short, the magic that sends you out of the theatre smiling and singing.

Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out: It's a far from cheap-looking show, and my usually sullen inner child erupted with delight about 15 minutes - or £25 - in, when the giant screen backdrop turned into a glistening forest of candy canes, as hero Buddy the Elf started his long journey from the North Pole to New York.

Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard: Forster gives a committed lead performance for director/choreographer Morgan Young but, unfortunately, he hasn't got Buddy's tone quite right. Whereas Ferrell's mien was one of bemused innocence and determined good cheer in the big bad city, Forster has the inescapable air of a smart arse. And a smart arse with a green felt elf suit, stripy hat and curly-toed boots is not a good look.

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