Reviews 2013
Reviews 2013
✭✭✭✭✩
music by Matthew Sklar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, book by Bob Martin & Thomas Meehan, directed by Susan Ferley
Grand Theatre, London
November 22, 2013-January 4, 2014
Buddy: “The best way to spread Christmas Cheer is singing loud for all to hear.”
For an instant infusion of holiday spirit, head over to London to see the Grand Theatre production of the musical Elf. The show has an ideal cast and a wonderfully whimsical design. Best of all, it features a fantastic performance by Liam Tobin in the title role. The show is all about the victory of innocence over skepticism and Tobin so gleefully embodies that innocence that at the end you’ll leave with a lighter heart and a big smile on your face.
The 2010 musical Elf is based on the 2003 movie of the same name by Jon Favreau starring Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf and Ed Asner as Santa Claus. I have never seen the movie and the Grand Theatre production is so well done, I now don’t really want to. I’d rather remember Liam Tobin as Buddy and Neil Barclay as Santa. The musical has a Canadian connection since the book is co-written by Canadian Bob Martin, who also co-wrote the book for The Drowsy Chaperone (1998), the only Canadian musical to make a splash on Broadway.
The frame for the musical is that we’re being read a Christmas book called Buddy the Elf by Santa himself. The story follows the life of Buddy, a human orphan, who climbed into Santa’s sack one Christmas Eve and was whisked off to Christmastown at the North Pole when Santa finished his rounds. There he was raised as an elf, but soon enough his continued growth and general inefficiency at elfin tasks led everyone but Buddy to suspect he was really a human being. At age 30 he finally hears some elves call him a human behind his back, so he goes to Santa for an explanation. Santa confirms that Buddy is indeed human and that his mother died shortly after his birth but that his father, Walter Hobbs, lives in New York City.
Buddy immediately embarks on a quest to find his father and, still in his elf suit, creates quite a stir among all who see him. He discovers that Walter Hobbs (Ian Simpson) runs a children’s book company. The stern, workaholic Walter has no time for Buddy’s far-fetched story. Most of the rest of the show is devoted to Buddy’s trials in trying to convince Hobbs, his stepmother Emily (Cara Hunter) and his stepbrother Michael (Justin Eddy) who he is. After Walter has him escorted out of his office, Buddy accidentally gets a job in the Santaland section of Macy’s where he strikes up a friendship with a store worker Jovie (Anwyn Musico).
The constant delight of the show is Buddy. He’s an adult who still has the innocence and optimism of childhood. He believes in magical things because he knows them to be true. New to human society, he takes what people say literally and doesn’t understand meanness, lies or deception. The story is so engaging because we see how Buddy’s naive persistence chips away at everyone’s skepticism until everyone around him is freed from their mental habits of negativity and social habits of unfriendliness.
With a show so dependent on a single character, a theatre company has to be sure to cast this role carefully. Well, the Grand has found ideal Buddy in Liam Tobin. At 6’3” he is the least likely person you would ever imagine as an “elf”, but this only makes his totally unself-conscious appearance in his elf costume funnier. He reproduces the eager speech patterns and awkward gestures of young kids perfectly. Good-looking but with more than a hint of goofiness, he is instantly likeable and has a winning smile, but like a youngster when he’s happy he radiates happiness from every pore. To top everything off he has a strong singing voice that helps him deliver every song with flair.
The rest of the cast are all excellent. As Buddy’s father Walter, Ian Simpson at first comes off as gruff and understandably annoyed with the oddities of a tall clingy man in an elf suit. But even when he is at his meanest toward Buddy and his staff, Simpson suggests that Walter is reaching a breaking point that has more to do with work that has increasingly alienated him from his family than with Buddy. The scene where he finally acknowledges that Buddy really is his son is beautifully acted with a mixture of happiness, regret and surprise. Simpson subtly prepares us from the start for Walter’s big change of personality that occurs near the end.
Anwyn Musico is very engaging as Buddy’s love interest Jovie, who quite naturally finds Buddy’s unstoppable gleefulness rather off-putting at first. But Musico shows us that she knows her past dating history has made her cynical and that cynicism is a trait she would be glad to rid herself of if she could.
Cara Hunter and young Justin Eddy as Buddy’s stepmother and -brother interact quite naturally together and cheer us when they then takes Buddy’s side. Diana Coatsworth is very funny as Walter’s no-nonsense secretary Deb, who recounts without a hint of irony an old Hungarian story about a child who receives a leg for Christmas. Ryan Kelly plays several roles but is most memorable as a member of Walter’s staff who can’t think of an original Christmas story, and that after difficult “thinking” sessions that look rather similar to constipation.
Bill Layton’s playful design is delightful. All the set elements, including those for New York, look like illustrations for a children’s storybook, blown up and mounted on styrofoam. Three dimensions are indicated by having two identical illustrations intersect at the midpoint. Kerry Gage has come up with some very inventive choreography that wonderfully integrates the adults with the adorable and talented ten-member children’s chorus. A scene everyone will enjoy is when Buddy and Jovie go skating (on rollerblades) at Rockefeller Center.
If there is a flaw with Elf as a musical, it is that Matthew Sklar’s music is lively but not very memorable and does not rise to the level of Chad Beguelin’s clever lyrics or Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin’s well-conceived book. Sklar’s music seems deliberately to go for a generic Broadwayish, school-of-Jerry Herman sound. Even when a song is reprised, like “A Christmas Song”, it doesn’t stick in the mind. Fortunately, Elf is an unusual musical that depends for its success almost entirely on how it is acted rather than how it is sung. Since I can’t imagine a stronger cast than the one director Susan Ferley has assembled, you exit quite happily replaying the dialogue rather than humming the tunes.
This is a musical where the Grand has got everything right. As the epitome of childlike innocence Liam Tobin captures the joyful mood of the entire show and indeed his performance alone is worth driving to London to see.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: (from top) Liam Tobin as Buddy with the children’s chorus ©2013 Mary Tweeddale; Neil Barclay as Santa. ©2013 Claus Andersen.
For tickets, visit www.grandtheatre.com.
2013-12-12
Elf