Simon Lipkin as Buddy in Elf the Musical
(Picture: Mark Senior)This is an Elf warning: Elf the Musical isn’t very good. It jettisons most of what is sly and subtle about the sublime 2003 Christmas film on which it’s based, in favour of sappy sentiment and bland songs.
It’s not Simon Lipkin’s fault that he can’t match Will Ferrell’s manically likeable, career-making screen performance as Buddy, the excitable child-man raised as one of Santa’s elves and suddenly transplanted to grouchy New York. Probably no one could.
