In Elf the Musical, everyone rallies around to change the tune of grouchy Walter Hobbs, who early on in the show can't understand why it's a problem that his production company have left out two pages at the end of a children's book. What does it matter if the story doesn't make sense? They're five! The sad irony is, this seems to have been the attitude of the creators of this touring production.
Corners were cut - and never the right ones - leaving us with a show that felt like a cash grab, targeting families with young children who will of course have wanted to see the live version of their favourite Christmas film. The quality of this show was, at times, shameful. And at £30 a ticket? God bless the parents who sat through tonight's show. Their children enjoyed it of course. They're five!
There were several very watchable performances, and excellent vocals from Jovie, Emily, and Michael, but sadly our lead's vocals were not strong enough to compete with the deafeningly loud pre-recorded music. The music was an issue throughout - why was there a dance sequence which had a pre-recorded tap dancing effect blasting through the speakers? Several singing queues were missed and our lead fell behind on several occasions.
It was peppered with oddities: Why was the LED screen (which much was made of in the production's advertising) low quality and showing (often irrelevant to the scene) short gif-like movies that looked as though they were pulled from WhatsApp? Why was one of the office workers wearing a Mickey Mouse Christmas jumper? Who was the man in the tracksuit who forced everyone into a pantomime "he's behind you"? Did they really think that by having Buddy the Elf run through the audience for 5 minutes we wouldn't ever turn our heads to see the other cast having to unceremoniously hoick the scenery around?
This show would have been a triumph were it local community theatre in a village hall, but at this level and this cost, it was unacceptably messy. And it's sad because Elf the Musical has a wonderful soundtrack, and has the potential to be a fantastic winter show if attention is placed in the right areas. But why bother, eh? When the audience will surely be filled every night.
Verity Babbs is the host of Voice FM's 'Arts & Culture Show' on Wednesdays at 2PM
www.veritybabbs.com
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