Media and Trailers
Elf - The Musical Atlanta reviews
Not a Fan of Oakdale or, as it turns out, of Elf the Musical
We saw Elf at Oakdale Theater in Wallingford, CT. Far too large a venue for musical theater, with what feels like miles to walk from the parking lot, huge lines for admission, restrooms and refreshments, and balcony seats that are so far from stage we could not even tell you what the characters looked like, except that Buddy the Elf was taller than everyone else. If we wanted to watch in on the monitors, we could have just watched it on TV. Hot, hot, hot in the theater as well, and people crackling wrappers and talking all around us.
The show was not all that interesting either; no showstopper numbers except for the dancing Santas at the top of act 2. Otherwise, it missed some of the best parts from the movie and was a bit of a snoozefest; grandchildren for the most part agreed with this assessment.
Fun show
We saw Elf the Musical at Shea's Theater in Buffalo, NY. First let me say this theater is stunning! The only possible issue for some is that there are no elevators for the upper floors.
The show was upbeat and fun. The opening scene with the "elves" was adorable.
The dancers and choreographer came together with a brilliant way to make us believe that they really were "elves".
The pit band sounded amazing and when we looked to see them, we were surprised at how small the pit really was.
The singing from all the cast was top notch.
The scenery was spectacular and the scene changes were quick and seamless.
If there is any constructive criticism it would be to have Buddy be a bit more excited and silly. There were many times Buddy's performance was a bit lack luster, it was like he was just going through scene to scene with limited emotion. To be fair he is being compared to Will Farrell's performance in the movie.
Overall it was a great Christmas experience!