Elf The Musical is the hilarious and heartwarming tale of Buddy (Tony Award® nominee Grey Henson), a young orphan whose life is changed forever when he mistakenly crawls into Santa’s sack of toys one Christmas Eve. Raised by elves at the North Pole, Buddy’s enormous size and limited toy-making abilities make him realize he may not quite fit in! When he discovers he is actually human, Buddy embarks on a journey to New York City to find his birth father, and in turn, helps the Big Apple and the people he meets rediscover the true meaning of Christmas.
Hailed by Time Out as “a slickly irresistible and fizzily enjoyable confection of a show” that will “whirl you up in a technicolor dream of Christmas,” this modern-day holiday classic returns home to Broadway in an acclaimed new, record-breaking production that “has the magic to send you out of the theatre smiling and singing” (The Times of London).
Any production of Elf necessarily rests on the shoulder of the fellow in the oversized elf’s costume. (As those familiar with the plot are aware, Buddy the Elf is not really an elf, if there be such a thing as a real elf; rather, he’s a human raised by elves and exiled from the North Pole to midtown Manhattan.) Unlike prior Buddys we’ve seen—drama critics who stick around long enough tend to revisit plays and musicals, like it or not—Grey Henson has the soul of one of those old-fashioned musical-comedy comedians, striving for and achieving laughter on a moment-by-moment basis.
The last time “Elf: The Musical” was on Broadway, during the holiday season a dozen years ago, I saw an autism-friendly performance of it. This turned out to be a great way to view this stage adaptation of the 2003 Will Ferrell movie, since my attention was directed almost entirely to the dexterity and decency with which the cast delighted the sometimes-unpredictable audience. That fond memory began fading before the end of the first song of this new revival, which opens tonight at the Marquis Theater for another holiday run.
2010 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2012 | US Tour |
NETworks National Tour US Tour |
2012 | Broadway |
Broadway Return Production Broadway |
2013 | US Tour |
NETworks National Tour US Tour |
West End |
West End West End |
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2015 | US Tour |
2015 Holiday Tour US Tour |
2017 | Off-Broadway |
Madison Square Garden Return Engagement Off-Broadway |
2022 | US Tour |
US Holiday Tour US Tour |
2024 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
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