Elf: The Broadway Musical

Comments (0) By Brad Richason Wednesday, Dec 5 2012

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Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

345 Washington St.
St. Paul, MN 55102

Category: Performing Arts Venues

Region: St. Paul (Downtown)

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There's a scene in the 2003 Yuletide comedy Elf in which the central character, Buddy (played with unhinged innocence by Will Ferrell), summarizes the four basic food groups as candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup. Such sugary confections can be used to adequately describe the mood of the film itself, a sweet-natured Christmas tale in which the exuberantly naive Buddy the Elf confronts the pervasive cynicism of the world beyond his magical home in the North Pole. Premiering in 2010, the Broadway adaptation maintained the film's polarity of seasonal sentiments, contrasting the childlike amazement of Buddy with the jaded pragmatism of adulthood. The result, coupled with original musical numbers by composer Matthew Sklar and lyricist Chad Beguelin (who had previously mined crowd-pleasing fare with the staged adaptation of The Wedding Singer) proved a holiday smash. Arriving at the Ordway for the final stop in its first North American tour, Elf: The Broadway Musical follows the film's basic narrative, recounting an orphaned human baby raised as an elf until, upon discovering his true past, he departs the enchanted realm of Santa Claus for the skeptical streets of NYC in search of his biological father. With a buoyant cast (including Matt Kopec in the hyperkinetic title role), vibrant choreography, and sugarcoated sets, Elf feels custom designed to win over Scrooges with an exhibition of holly jolly fervor. (Photo by Joan Marcus)
Wednesdays-Sundays, 7:30 p.m.; Fridays, Saturdays, 2 p.m. Starts: Dec. 5. Continues through Dec. 30, 2012