Elf the musical - theatre review: A charming evening’s entertainment for children of all ages

Kimberley Walsh is a delight in this new musical full of seasonal good cheer
Elf the musical: 'It looks like a million dollars'
Dave Benett
Fiona Mountford6 November 2015

If too many people ask for Elf tickets for Christmas, poor Santa will go bankrupt. This new musical based on the wildly popular 2003 Will Ferrell film made headlines for all the wrong reasons when it was announced that top price seats would cost a mind-boggling £240. Critical knives, I suspect, were being sharpened in anticipation of the show’s opening, but here’s the news: it’s a charming evening’s entertainment for children of all ages.

To start with, it looks a million dollars, or at least £240, as Ian William Galloway’s attractive video designs sweep us from the North Pole, a snow-clad land of candy canes, all the way to New York City.

It’s here that accidental elf Buddy (Ben Forster), a human raised by Santa and his team after a mix-up in a sack of presents, hopes to find his birth father, ominously on the big man in red’s long-term Naughty List.

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.

Nonetheless, his adventures and mishaps, especially with his workaholic father (Joe McGann, master of the gruff one-liner) are appealing, unfolding against a backdrop of every glossy, snowy, twinkly Christmas scene one could wish for. The songs, by Matthew Sklar (music) and Chad Beguelin (lyrics), are nicely catchy, rarely a given in a new musical.

Call me a cotton-headed ninny-muggins, to borrow the show’s most appealing phrase, but I wasn’t counting down the hours until I could see former Girls Aloud star Kimberley Walsh as Buddy’s love interest Jovie. I should have been, though, as Walsh is a delight in her too-few scenes, tuneful and engaging. Overall, Elf left this Grinch-inclined critic with expectations pleasantly confounded, and full of seasonal good cheer.

Dominion Theatre, until Jan 2(0845 200 7982, elfthemusical.co.uk)

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