It is Christmas in July at Music Theatre Wichita, and while we swelter all day in the humid summer sauna, MTW has opened its second show of the season, “Elf, the Musical,” composed by Matthew Sklar with lyrics by Chad Beguelin with book by Thomas Meehan and Bob Martin.

Director Brian Marcum had his hands full with dancing elves, bustling city folks, and corporate office employees prepared to break into dance among rapid scene changes. And a barrage of projections, hundreds of light cues, and (on opening night) a pesky snow system (about which more below) had stage manager Kelly Hardy living on the edge. All of these elements, glitches included, were well worth the experience provided by this enormous musical, but they challenged the summer repertoire company’s limited timeline.

For those who haven’t seen “Elf,” the New Line Cinema film by David Berenbaum directed by Jon Favreau and starring Will Ferrell, the story follows the plight of Buddy, a human who has been raised as an elf at the North Pole. At the age of 30, Buddy finally gets wise to the fact he is not an elf. Santa, who narrates, gives Buddy his parents’ back story. Though his mother died shortly after he was born, his father, Walter Hobbs, still lives. Buddy, distraught, sets out to find him. Hobbs is on the naughty list for his lack of Christmas spirit. His family immediately adores Buddy, but it takes most of the story to get Hobbs (played by Timothy Gulan in this production) to turn around, believe in Santa, and save Christmas.

If you haven’t seen the movie, I recommend you do so before attending the musical. It is in full service to the movie and those who love it. 

The star of the show is Buddy, played by a dazzling Chris Stevens, who has the unenviable task of reminding everyone of the original film star, Will Ferrell, without falling into a cheap impersonation. Stevens is up to the task, having performed the role several times across the country. What is more, he establishes himself as a legitimate singer early, in “World’s Greatest Dad,” and continues to impress throughout. The rest of the cast is made up of formidable singers, too. Even young Will Grimmett as young Michael Hobbs held his own next to the adult voices, adding a bright tenor with clean intonation and pronunciation. 

Acting was inconsistent, with some falling into the trap of “musical-theater loud,” leaving little room to grow in the more intense moments, and others using gestures as indication instead of a more natural physical reaction. A few standout exceptions are Deb the assistant, played by Cassidy Stoner, and Buddy’s romantic interest Jovie, played by Sofia Macaluso. Both actors found enough realism in their physical presentations to allow their characters to lift off the page and take a three-dimensional form. 

The book does a nice job of keeping all of the favorite quotable lines while making necessary adjustments to accommodate a live stage musical. One notable modification includes switching out the Peter Dinklage character, Miles Finch, the famous children’s book author, to a never-seen character named Christopher Smith. The new name and plot adjustment solves the obvious problem of finding and casting a person with dwarfism and gives the added benefit of the “Chris Smith Christmas story” pun. 

The musical also adds a lovely monologue for Buddy to demonstrate character growth as he learns Christmas is not just Santa and decorations, but “sleeping on a futon and eating cold spaghetti with your brother.” It’s a touching addition and fills in thematic elements that the stage version, lacking the film’s myriad small roles, can’t quite cover. The lyrics are often repetitive — but then surprise with jokes and clever turns of phrase, as when exasperated Santa Claus, played by local favorite Timothy W. Robu, sings, “when they sing until they’re bluish, Santa wishes he were Jewish.” When you go, keep a lookout for Chekhov’s paper shredder. It is another deviation from the film and a pure value-add. 

Sklar’s score, for the most part, is boilerplate. While the energy for nearly every tune is level-10 and entertaining, it tends to dehydrate over the course of the first act. The second act’s opening number, “Nobody Cares About Santa,” set in Chung Foo Palace Chinese restaurant and performed by a pack of fake Santas, is a welcome relief in style, both musically and visually. The very next scene offers a lovely ballad, “Never Fall in Love,” sung by the honest Jovie (Macaluso). 

That serves the show’s pacing well and, were it not for the snow machine dumping the entire show’s worth of snow in the scene change, it would have helped provide contrast with the first act’s high-energy dancing. As it were, the technical difficulties of removing the snow required a five-minute break, and the technical crew struggled to regain its rhythm for the remainder of the show. 

The score was new to us. My wife and I left the theater singing a strange mashup of “We Both Reached for the Gun” and “What a Game!” from the classic musicals “Chicago” and “Ragtime” respectively, attempting to discern which one the final number more closely resembled. 

Michael Salvatore Commendatore designed delightfully clever scenery. Commendatore used modular set pieces rearranged in the middle of musical numbers to redefine spaces in ways only possible in live theater. This was best demonstrated in the early office scene, where cubicles become a wall and then another arrangement of desks. The Hobbs apartment offers a relief to the glitz and splash of other locations, and the “North Pole” of Macy’s made a beautiful transformation during the song “Sparklejollytwinklejingley.” 

Unfortunately, much of the scenery was upstaged by a wide array of projections with no common stylistic thread. The opening projections gave the impression of a new movie version, and other scenes projected more stylized shapes and moving lights. Still others used realistic photos of New York City. Most distracting were the images of the city in spring’s full bloom for a show set in December. Costumes were more consistent to the imagined world, but at times visually conflicted with the scenery, making it difficult to see the choreography. The bright and busy visuals were washed in a saturated color by lighting designer Yael Lubetzky. It was all the spectacle one would expect of a Christmas musical, and then some.

Music Theatre Wichita is a gift to our community, offering opportunities for young people in our region to build their resume before moving on to bigger cities and companies. In a town better known for athletics, MTW’s education department is helping develop young people into prospective college students and musical theater artists. Producing big musicals in quick succession each summer is a herculean feat. Opening night of “Elf, the Musical,” was a tough night for the technical crew. There were ill-fitted wigs, missed microphone cues, poorly timed light and projection cues, and the aforementioned “snowmaggedon.” Visually, this show was all over the place. 

But if you like the film, you are going to love the musical. The guest actors from out of town do not disappoint, and we loved seeing our local favorites, too. I hope remaining performances run more smoothly and that the bright lights, colors, and patterns provide an action-packed evening of good-natured entertainment.

The Details

Music Theatre Wichita presents "Elf the Musical

July 8-12, 2026 at Century II Concert Hall, 225 W. Douglas Ave. in Wichita

Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday. 

Ticket prices range from $25-89. The facility is accessible to people with physical disabilities.

Learn more and purchase tickets.

Leslie Coates is a theater faculty member at Butler Community College and has acting and directing credits from San Diego to New England. He is a former board member for Forum Theatre Company where he also appeared in "Christmas Letters," "Pump Boys and Dinettes," and various Words and Music performances. 

Support Kansas arts writing

The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation.