ELF Musical in 2 Acts. Music by Matthew Sklar; Lyrics - Chad Beguelin; Book by Bob Martin & Thomas Meehan Based on the 2003 film of the same title Al Hirschfeld Theatre, Broadway 14 November, 2010 SYNOPSIS ELF is the hilarious tale of Buddy, a young orphan who mistakenly crawls into Santa's bag of gifts and is transported to the North Pole. Buddy is raised unaware that he is actually a human, until his enormous size and poor toy-making abilities cause him to face the truth. With Santa's permission, Buddy embarks on a journey to New York City to find his birth father and discover his true identity. Faced with the harsh reality that his father is on the naughty list and his stepbrother doesn t even believe in Santa, Buddy is determined to win over his new family and help New York remember the true meaning of Christmas. STORY Act I When he sits down to watch TV after his Christmas deliveries and realizes that the football game he tried to TiVo has been recorded over, Santa decides to tell the Christmas story of Buddy, the Elf. Lights up on Buddy, an oversized elf, excitedly getting ready for another day's work in Santa's workshop. At work, Charlie the shop manager informs the Elves they must work twice as hard this year, because more and more humans no longer believe in Santa and that Christmas spirit is what makes Santa's sleigh fly. Later, Charlie checks on Buddy's progress making his toys. As usual, he is way behind the others and feels terrible about it. Charlie asks him take a break, and as he does Buddy overhears a conversation in which Charlie reveals that Buddy is actually a human. It is Buddy's worst nightmare. Santa sits Buddy down and tells him the story of how he accidentally brought him back to the North Pole when Buddy's mother died. He tells Buddy that his father lives and works in New York City but is on the "naughty list". Determined to save his father with Christmas spirit, Buddy sets off for New York. When he arrives at his father, Walter's office in the Empire State Building, he finds him ranting to his wife and son about Christmas being a complete annoyance. Walter is stunned to hear Buddy's declaration that he is his son and calls security to take him away. They drop him at Macy's where a manager mistakes him for an employee sent down from the corporate office to check on things. As they decorate the store all of the employees begrudge their overly happy new co-worker, until they too catch Buddy's infectious Christmas spirit. When everyone goes to leave for the night, Buddy asks, Jovie, his favorite co-worker on a date. She accepts. The next morning a department store Santa arrives. Buddy accuses him of being a fake and they fight. The police are called and take Buddy to his father's apartment. Emily and Michael are at home, trying in vain to build Michael's science project. Buddy agrees to help if they will in turn summon some Christmas spirit to write Christmas letters to Santa. They sit down to ask Santa for the one thing they never get, some quality time with Walter. Buddy fixes the science project to high-fives and hugs just as Walter walks in. Resistant at first, Emily talks him into allowing Buddy to stay the night. In the morning a Fed-Ex man arrive with the results of a DNA test. When they first met, Emily plucked one of
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