Buddy is back: After 2021 COVID cancellation, 'Elf: The Musical' returns to Little Theatre

A year after the show originally was scheduled to open, "Elf: The Musical" will jingle its way onto Bucyrus Little Theatre's stage this weekend.

Last year's production was canceled at the last minute because many cast members — including the show's star — had COVID-19.

Cindy Light, Bucyrus Little Theatre president, will direct this year's performance.

"There were some things that we had ready, but a lot of it, we started over with," she said.

Last year, the community theater's board asked her to take over directing duties a week before the show was to open because the original director had COVID, she said.

"At that point, I had been working on costumes and working with the little elves, the kids," she said. Several cast members also became sick, "but we were going to try, right up till the last minutes."

Then the actor playing Buddy, the show's star, came down with COVID.

"We just said, 'Nope, that's it,'" Light said. "We cannot."

But the theater company was able to work with Music Theatre International, the show's publishing company, to reschedule the production for this year.

Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Additional performances will be at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 9-10 and 2:30 p.m. Dec. 11. Tickets, $15 for adults and $10 for students, are available at the theater's website, bucyruslittletheatre.com, or at the box office.

'We've got a really strong cast this year'

This year's production has built upon last year's efforts, Light explained.

"We kind of thought that a lot of people, or most of the people, would come back from the cast," she said. "There's probably not even half came back, for various reasons."

Some of them moved away; she explained. A few had joined the cast because they were friends with last year's director. "Just all kinds of reasons."

"But we've got a really strong cast this year; it's excellent," Light said.

Eric Julian "E.J." Walker has returned to the role of Buddy.

"He was a professional dancer and singer, and now he lives in Marion," she said. "He still teaches ... and he's got red, curly hair. He's just perfect for the part."

Walker appeared in this summer's production of "Monty Python's Spamalot," and has performed in productions across the region.

"But basically, it's a whole new cast, new director, new choreographer," Light said. "So it's kind of a continuation, because we kept a lot of the ideas. The costumes were at least started; well into being started, so we kept the same elf costumes. Some of the same set ideas; I guess most of those.

"A lot was a continuation, but when you have new people, it's pretty much starting over. But it's been a lot of fun."

The production has a large cast — 45 — including a number of children, who play Santa's elves.

"It's such a big show that a lot of those people have to play two and three parts," Light said. Were it not for that, they'd need more than 100 people to fill out the cast.

"But that makes it crazy, because they're running from one scene to another, helping change the set, changing their costumes," she said. "The whole show has to be choreographed, not just the dances. So that's what we're working on, those details."

Light said she didn't think she could pick out one feature of the show that's a highlight of the production.

"The music is fun and upbeat; it's not really something that people know, that they go around singing," she said. "But it's fun music."

She's happy with her talented cast, and the show's choreography.

"I just get such an excited thrill out of seeing all the pieces and parts come together that each little detail is so exciting to me," she said. "I can't sit back and say, 'Oh, this is a highlight of the show,' I just get thrilled at something really little that adds to the detail and makes the whole thing shine."

ggoble@gannett.com

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This article originally appeared on Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum: Bucyrus Little Theatre's 'Elf: The Musical' opens this weekend