Elf review: Simon Lipkin brings Christmas joy to the Dominion Theatre

Dreaming of a white Christmas? Then go see Elf at London’s Dominion Theatre, where this frothy frolic of a show has taken up residency until January.

If you’re in the front stalls you’ll end up covered in the snow (don’t worry – it’s made from something like scented soap powder and quickly dissolves) that pours from the rafters towards the end of the story as the Christmas spirit is restored to the jaded residents of New York City.

This grinch-filled metropolis, artfully realised by Tim Goodchild’s spectacularly stylised sets, is where the titular hero finds himself when he goes in search of his father. If you’ve seen Will Ferrell in the non-musical film you’ll know that his name is Buddy and he’s grown up in the North Pole, where he works in Santa’s workshop and towers above his fellow elves – who, in the lively opening number ‘Christmastown’, are amusingly played by the ensemble with curly shoes attached to their knees.

As the orphaned man-child who doesn’t have a bad bone in his body, Simon Lipkin avoids doing a Ferrell impersonation. He has his own comic timing, his own floppy physicality, his own wide-eyed wonder at the likes of the Empire State Building, and he’s brilliant.

A bit like a redheaded Ben Platt with an equally strong singing voice, he’s as irresistible as a mince pie smothered in brandy butter. Visiting his dad in the latter’s publishing house (visually he fits right in because it’s green, like his elf suit) or landing a job at Santa’s grotto in Macy’s, Lipkin is at times childishly adorable and at others hilariously petulant – hoovering up spaghetti with syrup for breakfast or yelling “You sit on a throne of lies” to a fake Father Christmas.

He’s also a nimble-footed hoofer, as demonstrated in the many huge song-and-dance numbers penned by Matthew Skylar and Chad Beguelin, whose music was the best thing about the otherwise pretty lousy film The Prom. The score is a bit repetitive but it allows for lots of tap-dancing, ice-skating, and routines performed atop giant spelling blocks.

As Jovie, the New Yorker that Buddy falls for, Georgina Castle doesn’t have enough to do but she belts out the ballad ‘Never Fall In Love (With An Elf)’ with witty lyrics like “While others deck the halls, you dream of decking him” that mark this as more than just a kids’ show.

Tom Chambers doesn’t have enough to do either as Buddy’s work-driven dad Walter, although at least he gets to show off the fancy footwork that made him 2008’s Strictly Come Dancing champ.

By the end of the show, it feels like Christmas has exploded in the Dominion. There are all those elves, all that snow, brightly-lit trees, and tinsel galore. And at the bright and shiny heart of it is Lipkin’s loveable Buddy.

When he leads the cast in a chorus of ‘Sparklejollytwinklejingley’ you’d have to be a truly miserable sod to not be smiling from ear to ear.

Rating: 4/5

Elf is at the Dominion Theatre, London, until 7 January. For tickets click here.