Elf The Broadway Musical Analysis

On November 10 I attended Elf the Broadway Musical written by David Berrenbaum and directed by Sam Scalamoni. I attended Elf the Broadway Musical which was put on by Texas A&M University and MSC OPAS. Elf the Broadway Musical was a comedic musical that appealed to audience members of any ages including a range from myself a college student to the family of four sitting next to me. Elf the Broadway Musical was a delight surprise, since I had seen Elf (film) I expected the play to appeal more to a younger audience, but was surprised when I found myself laughing alongside the two children sitting next to me. I honestly did not have very high expectation from this play for some reason I was just not very excited to attend this play maybe it was

Eventually, it is revealed that Buddy is a human contrary to his belief that he is also an elf this leads to his quest to find his dad, Walter Hobbs. Once Buddy arrives in New York City he meets his dad who has no Christmas spirit; which, leads up to the climax when Santa’s sleigh crashes due to a loss of Christmas spirit in New York. At the end of the play Buddy gets enough Christmas spirit to fuel Santa’s sleigh back to the North Pole and issues between Buddy and Walter are resolved. The play ends with Buddy and Jovi who are now married and have a child visiting Santa at the North Pole along with Buddy’s brother, stepmom, and dad. This play had a magical effect on me while I was watching it made me believe in the power of Christmas spirit and how it bonds family and friends together. Berrenbaum’s play that was recently written holds a universal truth, which is that the holidays are about spending time with your family, while the play takes place around Christmas time the message can definitely apply to any holiday. In addition to this powerful message, it should also be noted how relatable and well conveyed it was. Throughout the play I found myself thinking about myself and my actions around holidays and I did a mental check to think of the things that I should stop doing. The play incudes what many or most of us think

To begin the setting was amazingly seamless and convincing; although, I didn’t have very high expectation for the sets I was amazed to say the least when I saw the first scene set. In scenes where Santa was telling Buddy’s story the set was the most simplistic while other scenes for instance when Buddy first gets to New York I was amazed by the set and how realistic it was to the actual setting. The flow of sets was almost seamless making the entire play feel dreamlike. The stage props used throughout the play were handled as though they weren’t props and that the character holding or using them used them every day adding to the dreamlike feeling of this play. The lighting perfectly depicted the mood of each scene I noticed that while in the North Pole the lights tended to be more of a bright white light which to me symbolizes joy and happiness, while in other scenes in New York I noticed gloomier colors such as dark blue that most likely to symbolize Buddy’s struggle and conflict with his father, Walter. The costumes used helped to further who the characters were and I found them to be very appropriate and exactly how you would imagine an elf to be dressed or how a New Yorker would be dressed. I believed that only the New York characters costumes were time specific, while the elves costumes are timeless since what we imagine elves to look like doesn’t change. The staging of this play