Elf is a musical based on the 2003 motion picture, with a score by Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin. The book is adapted by Bob Martin and Thomas Meehan from the film.
The musical premiered on Broadway in the Christmas season of 2010 and was revived in 2012 and 2024. It played in London's West End in 2015, 2022, 2023, and 2025, and it has toured extensively in English-speaking countries, often during the Christmas holiday season.
Synopsis
Act 1 Santa Claus, annoyed that his football game has been recorded over, opens a large pop-up book to read a story. Buddy is the happiest and tallest elf by far ("Christmastown"). It turns out that Buddy is human. Santa explains that Buddy's mother had died, and, as an orphan, he had crawled into Santa's toy sack; arriving at the North Pole, he was raised as an elf. Santa encourages Buddy to go to New York City to find his birth father, Walter Hobbs, who is on the naughty list because he doesn't believe in Santa. Nevertheless, Buddy hopes that Walter will be the "World's Greatest Dad".
Walter works long hours as a book publisher in the Empire State Building. Too busy to shop for gifts with his son, Michael, and wife, Emily, he laments that Christmas gets "In the Way". Dressed in his elf clothes, Buddy finds Walter's office, where he is mistaken for a singing telegram entertainer, but he sings that Walter is his father. Walter does not believe him and has building security take Buddy to the nearby Macy's Department Store North Pole village. The employees there love Buddy's happy Christmas spirit ("Sparklejollytwinklejingley"). Buddy quickly falls for Jovie, a practical-minded Macy's elf, and persuades her to go on a date with him. The next day, however, Buddy sees Macy's Santa and declares that he is not the real Santa, causing a fracas. The police bring him to the residence of the Hobbs family.
There, Michael and Emily are struggling to build a science project. Buddy helps them to complete the project, in exchange for Michael and Emily sending a letter to Santa asking for quality time with Walter ("I'll Believe in You"). Walter gets home, and they convince him to let Buddy sleep there for the night. In the morning, they receive the results of a DNA test that Emily arranged; it proves that Buddy is Walter's son ("In the Way" (reprise)). Reluctantly, he takes Buddy to his office, because Emily has a meeting. Buddy, wearing a new suit like his dad's, hopes to be "Just Like Him". Mr. Greenway, Walter's boss, tells Walter that if he does not publish a hit children's book by Christmas Eve, he will be fired; Walter, under pressure, grows even more frustrated by Buddy's distracting exuberance.
Buddy takes Jovie on a date, and the two have romantic chemistry. He plans to fulfill her Christmas wish by taking her to dinner at Tavern on the Green. Jovie enjoys Buddy's enthusiasm as he encourages her to spread Christmas Cheer by loudly singing "A Christmas Song". Buddy is eager to tell Walter that he is in love and decides to cheer up his dad by making it snow in his office, so he shreds up some paper that turns out to be the manuscript of the children's book that Walter is feverishly working on. Walter angrily tosses Buddy out of the office, asking him never to return. Buddy is despondent ("World Greatest Dad" (reprise)).
Act 2 Santa recounts that Buddy left a farewell message for the Hobbs family. On Christmas Eve, hungry and alone on the streets of New York, Buddy finds a Chinese restaurant, where he meets unhappy, out-of-a-job fake Santas complaining that "Nobody Cares About Santa". Buddy is two hours late for his date with Jovie, who is waiting angrily in front of Tavern on the Green. She vows: "Never Fall in Love (With an Elf)". When Buddy shows up, he gives her a snow globe that Santa had given him when he departed from the North Pole, but she is too disappointed and departs.
Emily and Michael find Buddy's letter and wish to retrieve him. Out of their apartment window, they see Santa's sleigh and realize that they have been wrong: "There Is a Santa Claus". They go to the Empire State Building, where Buddy also arrives, to find Walter sweating as he works to pitch a book idea to his boss. Buddy suggests "The Story of Buddy the Elf". Mr. Greenway loves the idea but says the book should be about a horse, rather than an elf. He demands that Walter work through Christmas to produce the book. However, Mr. Greenway overplays his hand by rudely criticizing Walter's sons, and Walter quits his job. Michael relates that he and his mother saw Santa's sleigh land. This alarms Buddy, as he knows this means that the sleigh must have lost power from a lack of Christmas spirit in New York City. The Hobbs family rushes to Central Park ("Nobody Cares About Santa" (reprise)).
Buddy is struck by a plan. He sees a news crew covering a purported UFO event. Grabbing the reporter's microphone, he encourages all New Yorkers to spread the Christmas spirit to repower the sleigh and speed Santa on his way. Jovie appears, and she starts to sing "A Christmas Song" (reprise). Other New Yorkers begin to sing, and their collective Christmas cheer works. Santa invites Buddy to come home with him to the North Pole, but at last, Buddy feels that he has a place in New York, where he can continue making everyone happy.
On Christmas Day at his home, Santa closes the big book and hears a knock on his door. There he finds Buddy, Jovie, their new baby, Buddy Jr., and the rest of the Hobbs family arriving to celebrate Christmas with him. This becomes their annual tradition.
Differences from the film
Instead of Santa Claus, the film is narrated by Papa Elf, who does not appear in the musical. Other minor changes from the movie to the musical include Santa Claus using an iPhone instead of a list of names while delivering gifts, Buddy and Jovie's child being changed from a girl to a boy, the department store scenes taking place at Macy's instead of Gimbels, and Buddy being dropped off at the Hobbs house instead of being bailed out of jail by Walter. The musical also adds a subplot about Michael and Emily Hobbs' disbelief in Santa Claus. And instead of having an elf named Ming Ming, they changed the name to Charlie and had a girl elf named Shwanda.
Several scenes from the film are absent, including Buddy's visit to the mail room of the Empire State Building, and Buddy rescuing Michael from school bullies in a Central Park snowball fight. The character of Miles Finch is cut in the musical. In the musical, Walter's staff writers happen upon the only copy of an unpublished manuscript for a Christmas story by deceased famous author Chris Smith. Buddy shreds the document, not understanding its significance. This is when Walter angrily says he wishes Buddy wasn't his son, instead of in the aftermath of the Miles Finch scene.
The film and musical strongly deviate in the character of Walter. In the film, Walter is portrayed as greedy, obsessed with his work, and deliberately neglectful of his family duties. In the musical, he is shown as merely bumbling, forgetful, and overworked. Santa Claus explains in the film that Walter is on his "naughty" list because of his greed and general meanness, whereas in the musical it is because he doesn't believe in Santa. In the musical, after Buddy pitches the idea of making the book about how he came to the North Pole (leading into the song, "The Story of Buddy the Elf"), Mr. Greenway loves the story, but Walter quits after Mr. Greenway insults his sons; in the film Walter chooses to go with Michael to bring Buddy back home, instead of pitching anything to Mr. Greenway, which leads to his firing.
Musical numbers The musical numbers in the original Broadway production were as follows:
Act I Overture – Orchestra "Christmastown" – Santa, Buddy, Company "World's Greatest Dad" – Buddy "In the Way" – Deb, Walter, Emily, Michael, Company "Sparklejollytwinklejingley" – Buddy, Store Manager, Company "I'll Believe in You" – Michael and Emily "In the Way" (reprise) – Emily and Walter "Just Like Him" – Buddy, Deb, Company "A Christmas Song" – Buddy, Jovie, Company "I'll Believe in You" (reprise) – Buddy and Company
Act II Entr'acte – Orchestra "Nobody Cares About Santa" – Fake Santas, Store Manager, Buddy "Never Fall in Love" – Jovie "There Is a Santa Claus" – Michael and Emily "The Story of Buddy the Elf" – Buddy, Michael, Walter, Mr. Greenway, Emily, Deb, Company "Nobody Cares About Santa" (reprise) – Santa "A Christmas Song" (reprise) – Jovie, Buddy, Emily, Michael, Walter, Company Finale – Company
Notes Subsequent productions including the Broadway revival and West End production replaced "Christmastown" with "Happy All the Time" and "I'll Believe in You (Reprise)" with "World's Greatest Dad (Reprise)".
Casts The original principal casts of major productions.
Character Broadway Broadway Revival West End West End Revival West End Revival Broadway Revival West End Revival2010201220152022202320242025 Buddy Sebastian Arcelus Jordan Gelber Ben Forster Simon Lipkin Matthew Wolfenden Grey Henson Joel Montague Jovie Amy Spanger Leslie Kritzer Kimberley Walsh Georgina Castle Kayla Davion Carrie Hope Fletcher Emily Hobbs Beth Leavel Jessica Martin Rebecca Lock Ashley Brown Rosanna Hyland Walter Hobbs Mark Jacoby Joe McGann Tom Chambers Michael Hayden Aled Jones Michael Hobbs Matthew GumleyMatthew Schechter Mitchell Sink Ilan Galkoff Harry Collett Noah KeyEwan Rutherford Dexter Barry Logan Clark Alfie Morwood Frankie Treadaway Jude Farrant Daniel Lee Oliver Ravellini Austin Riley Kai Edgar Ayrton English Max Garlick Harry Georgiou Samuel Sturge Santa Claus George Wendt Wayne Knight Mark McKerracher Nicholas Pound Sean Astin Martyn Ellis Mr. Greenway Michael McCormick Adam Heller Deb Valerie Wright Jennie Dale Kim Ismay Jennifer Sanchez Lucinda Lawrence Store Manager/Hot Dog Vendor Michael Mandell Graham Lappin Dermot Canavan Kalen Allen Dermot Canavan
Production history
Broadway After a 2009 workshop, the musical officially opened for a limited holiday engagement at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway on November 14, 2010, following previews from November 2, 2010. Casey Nicholaw directed. The Broadway League. "Elf the Musical", Internet Broadway Database.Healy, Patrick. "Musical Version of 'Elf' Heading to Broadway". The New York Times, June 11, 2010Gans, Andrew. "Nicholaw to Direct Workshop of Elf the Musical". Playbill.com, September 3, 2009 The final performance took place January 2, 2011 after a run of 15 preview and 57 regular performances.Hetrick, Adam. "Elf: The Musical Unwraps Broadway Christmas Bow Nov. 2 at the Hirschfeld". playbill.com, November 2, 2010 A Broadway cast recording was released on November 1, 2011.Recording Amazon.com Leading the original cast was Wicked and Jersey Boys star Sebastian Arcelus, who was joined by Broadway alums Amy Spanger and Beth Leavel.Hetrick, Adam. "Sebastian Arcelus Will Be Broadway's Buddy; Elf – The Musical Completes Casting". Playbill, September 13, 2010
Following the success of the 2010 production, the musical returned to the Al Hirschfeld for a second holiday season beginning November 9, 2012, on a run through January 6, 2013.Hetrick, Adam. "Elf The Musical Will Return to Broadway's Al Hirschfeld Theatre in November" playbill.com, August 9, 2012 This new production featured a revised book and a new opening number, "Happy All the Time".