It is kind of hard to believe that it’s been twenty-two years since the Will Ferrell fish-out-of-water Christmas comedy Elf was released. It’s probably the only film to be released in my lifetime that could be considered a “holiday classic” with little charity, though that hinges on what I think of Home Alone at any given moment. (I never had any fondness for the Dr. Suess/Grinch movies with Jim Carrey and I won’t entertain any discussion about a particular Bruce Willis vehicle; there are other corners of the Internet for that nonsense.)

But the concept of a thirty-something Will Ferrell playing an, uhh, elf, too large and too human for the North Pole being left alone in New York with only a sweet tooth that requires bidaily dental visits and a snow globe in search of the father who doesn’t know he exists, and that father is Sonny Corleone, is basically too irresistible to fail.

That irresistibility was also why it was turned into a musical that premiered on Broadway in 2010 and has been on stages on and off the Great White Way since. The reviews have been mixed, with a lot of critics noting that there isn’t a real hit song and that it relies on too much on following the film. I saw it for the first time a few days ago when the 5th Avenue Theatre opened their 2025 take on the contemporary classic. (The first time they staged Elf: The Musical was way back in 2012, if I’m not mistaken.) Those things are still true, but the play is such great fun and everything within the 5th Avenue’s control is executed with tremendous success.

I have often tried to imagine someone other than Will Ferrell playing Buddy the Elf in the film. Eric Ankrim handles the job here with real charm, and he is unquestionably a triple threat. His extensive experience at the 5th Avenue and on Broadway is clear in every scene.

The Jovie character was my favorite performance in the production. Zooey Deschanel plays the character in the film and she’s fine. One way that I approach theater criticism different from film is that in the former, I don’t actively seek out who’s performing each role. But with Jovie in this production, I found myself absorbed in the pathos the actor exuded and it moved me so much I tried desperately to keep my tears from the purview of my +1. The way she portrayed a cynical person desperately hoping for Christmas magic really got to me. Only when I got home and looked at the playbill did I realize that Tori Gresham played Jovie. She had a scene in the 5th Avenue’s production of Bye Bye Birdie that was hysterically funny. Almost six months ago, I praised her physical comedy and wrote, “there’s a hilarious scene…that I can’t stop laughing as I think about it.” That remains true today. It’s so silly but so well executed and probably the funniest thing I saw in 2025. For my money, she’s the most gifted stage actor in Seattle right now. If she ever gets cast as Roxie Hart in Chicago, which I cannot shut up about being my very favorite musical, I might die of Stendhal syndrome.

The ensemble and primary cast are fantastic, the sets are well done, particularly the Greenway Publishing office. The play breezed by and it’s 2 1/2 hour runtime felt like half that. Sure, I wish the original production had more memorable songs out of the gate back in 2010 and the book made at least one noticeable divergence from the film but dammit, this was such an enjoyable night. I laughed, I cried (and hoped no one noticed) and, God help me, I briefly thought spaghetti with maple syrup didn’t sound that bad.

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Elf: The Musical runs through Sunday, December 28. Tickets and more info can be found here.

Photo of Eric Ankrim and Tori Gresham by Michael B. Maine, courtesy of the 5th Avenue Theatre.