Son of a nutcracker, what did they do to Elf? Back for a second stint in the West End, this musical version of the effervescent Will Ferrell film is an often flat night out. Despite some appealing performances and a tight candy-cane-twirling ensemble, it comes close to the blandly corporate Christmas experience it sets out to satirise and doesn’t muster a lot more joy than the kind of department store grotto in its story.
You know the plot: Buddy has been raised as an elf after crawling into Santa’s sack as a baby and winding up at the North Pole. He heads to New York to track down his father Walter, a hard-boiled publisher of children’s books, and brings disaster and cheer with him, while also finding love.
