Elf

The musical adaptation of the hit Christmas film starring Will Ferrell was Rhondda Theatre Group’s latest offering, at the Phoenix Theatre in Ton Pentre.  I always enjoy my visits to this very interesting building and this trip was no exception.

One of the things I really like about this group is the real sense of community that it embodies.  The cast members ranged from teenagers to pensioners and everyone looked to be enjoying themselves immensely.

The society opted to double cast the role of Buddy the Elf.  Keelan Jones was on duty during my visit.  I enjoyed Keelan’s performance, as did the rest of the audience in attendance.  He sang well and had good energy throughout.  He attempted to mimic some of Will Ferrell’s mannerisms in some of the more well-known moments which certainly hit the spot with the audience.  He shared the role with Aaron Hart, whom I sure did an equally great job.

Jovie was played by Leah Davies and she gave a very classy performance as the unlucky in love co-worker of Buddy.  Leah’s characterisation was great and her vocals were terrific in the musical numbers.  A thoroughly enjoyable performance, well done.

Finn O’Shaughnessy, Samantha Melton and Jack Melton played Buddy’s ‘human’ family:   Mr Hobbs, Mrs Hobbs and Michael Hobbs respectively.  They all worked well together and had good characters.  Finn’s portrayal of the bad guy turned good was very well done and there were some lovely musical moments between Samantha and Jack.  Well done to the three of you.

Trystan Rogers was great as Santa.  His character was great, as was his singing.  First class.

 

Other named players all added plenty to the production with strong characters and energy.  One minor note from me would be to just watch your accents on occasion as we were transported from New York, back to the Rhondda and then back again in some scenes.

The large ensemble all worked hard to enhance the scenes they were in and their singing was impressive.

Costumes were appropriate to the piece and well done.

Choreography was well thought out and delivered.  I particularly enjoyed the opening number with the dancing ‘elves’.  This was very difficult to pull off but the ensemble did it very well.  I was also very impressed by the tap number at the end of the production.   As a tap dancer myself, I always enjoy a strong tap number and the dancers and choreographer should be commended on this excellent number.

From a technical perspective, I really liked the projections used in place of traditional large scenery items in this production.  I am seeing more and more societies going for this option and the ones used in this production were of a superb standard.  The society opted for backing tacks in place of a live band and the cast had no issues with timing; they were very well drilled in this regard.  It is very easy to have timing issues, but you did not. Well done.  Occasionally though, there was an imbalance in sound levels between the cast and the tracks and a few microphones had some issues on the night. 

This was a lovely production, placed perfectly in the calendar to get everyone in the festive spirit.  The snow machines caused great excitement amongst the younger members of the audience and all of us, young and old, left with smiles on our faces.  Thank you RTG for an entertaining evening and I look forward to seeing you in 2026. 

 

The views in this report are solely of the author.

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