Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center welcomes Christmas with Elf The Musical, the delightful, tuneful Broadway stage adaptation of the 2003 Will Ferrell family favorite.

 Like the movie smash on which it is based, 2010’s Elf The Musical transports us up to the the North Pole, where Santa Claus (played by Santa himself) has raised the now 30-year-old Buddy (Philip McBride) to be so blissfully clueless to his human nature that he is “Happy All The Time.” (“Making toys is so fantastic that I shake until I’m spastic.”)

Then one fateful day, a fellow elf’s slip of the tongue reveals the truth.

Buddy is the love child of the now deceased Susan Wells and the still alive-and-kicking children’s book publisher Walter Hobbs (Todd Tickner), whose life-consuming job leaves little at-home time for wife Emily (Stephanie Lesh-Farrell) and 12-year-old son Michael (Leo Helfrich).

At Santa’s suggestion, Buddy heads south to Manhattan in full Elf regalia, showing up unannounced and unwelcome at Dad’s Empire State Building office before ending up in Macy’s toy department, whose staff Buddy finds woefully apathetic, that is until he convinces them that the place needs a “sparklejollytwinklejingley” makeover.

While there, Buddy meets (and falls quickly head over heels for) store employee Jovie (Morgan Reynolds), a salty blonde pixie who could give the Grinch a lesson in bad attitude but whom Buddy finds positively irresistible.

Considerably more resistible is Macy’s Santa, whose fake beard and smelly breath so outrage our “elfin” hero that he must be police-escorted out of the building and over to Walter’s deluxe apartment in the sky, where he soon charms both stepmom and half-bro if not dear old dad.

When Buddy throws an unintentional wrench in Walter’s latest attempt to come up with a Christmas bestseller, only a Christmas miracle can give our towering hero the happy ending he so richly deserves.

 Tony-winning book writers Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone) and Thomas Meehan (Annie, The Producers, Hairspray) make sure that “family-friendly” doesn’t mean “adult-unfriendly,” packing their humor-and-heart-filled book with one-liners bound to elicit grown-up chuckles while flying high over kiddies’ heads.

Matthew Sklar’s melodies are every bit as catchy as those that scored him a Tony nomination for The Wedding Singer, and lyrics don’t get any cleverer than fellow Wedding Singer Tony nominee Chad Beguelin’s.

 Under Fred Helsel’s deft direction, a carrot-topped McBride gives Buddy an irresistibly infectious joie-de-Christmas while singing quite gorgeously opposite Reynolds’ adorably prickly Jovie, whose “Never Fall In Love With An Elf” shows off the Azusa Pacific grad’s terrifically torchy pipes.

Lesh-Farrell follows her scene-stealing, orphan-hating Miss Hannigan in Glendale Centre Theatre’s Annie with an engagingly maternal Emily and child performer Helfrich reveals adult-sized talent as Michael.

Tickner’s all-work–and-no-play Walter, Erin Hollander’s straight-outta-Brooklyn Deb, Mookie Johnson’s harried Store Manager, Larry Shilkoff’s grouchy Mr. Greenway complete Elf’s hard-working featured cast.

Keenon Hooks’s lively choreography has exuberant ensemble members Carla Bambo (Mrs. Claus), Anna Cardino, a standout Augusto Guardado (Matthews), Olivia Leyva, Caitlyn Rose Massey (Charlotte), Amanda Perry, Luke Smith (Chadwick), and Peter Kund performing a knee-stomping “Christmastown” and a show-stopping “Nobody Cares About Santa, which features a bunch of drunken Kris Kringles and one “Chinese” waitress doing 42nd Street style tap and kicks while harmonizing to Mazie Rudolph’s expert vocal direction.

On the minus side, prerecorded tracks, while adeptly amped and mixed by Kevin Kahm, give this particular SVCAC production a canned-sounding soundtrack, and though Seth A. Kamenow’s scenic design serves its multi-locale goals, it’s a step down from the sets seen recently in Matilda, A Gentleman’s Guide To Love And Murder, and The Drowsy Chaperone.

Joshua Stapel’s colorful mix of costumes (from North Pole wear to NYC business chic), on the other hand, are visual treats (as are Gary Poirot’s wigs) and lighting designer Andrew Schmedake provides maximum pizzazz for SCVAC bucks.

Kimberly Kiley and Megan Tisler are stage managers. Tori Cusack is assistant choreographer. Shen Heckel is assistant lighting designer.

Though it can’t match the glitz, flash, and live musicianship of Elf The Musical’s National Tour (that had me first falling for Buddy a few years back) or a recent big-budgeted regional production, Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center’s scaled-down staging is nonetheless a holly-jolly holiday delight for adults and kids alike.

Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3050 Los Angeles Avenue, Simi Valley.
www.simi-arts.org

–Steven Stanley
December 19, 2019
Photos: Jon Neftali Photography

Tags: Bob Martin, Chad Beguelin, Matthew Sklar, Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, Thomas Meehan, Ventura County Theater Review