Opera House: “Elf the Musical JR.”

30 Nov Opera House: “Elf the Musical JR.”

“Elf the Musical JR” is directed by Allie Scherich and performed by students in grades 6 – 8 live at Telluride’s historic Sheridan Opera House. Event is this weekend, Dec. 2-4, 2016, 6 p.m. nightly. (Doors at 5:30 p.m.) Adults $13; children 12 & under $11 and lap children free. For tickets and more information go here or call 970-728-6363 ext. 5.

Telluride’s Sheridan Arts Foundation’ Young People’s Theater will be “singing loud for all to hear” with its upcoming production of “Elf The Musical Jr.”

Seventeen middle-school actors will embrace their “inner elf” at the Sheridan Opera House to kick of the YPT’s 2016-2017 winter season. The show is directed by the YPT’s Artistic Director Allie Scherich, who moved to Telluride with her family from New York City in May.

“‘Elf’ is one of my favorite movies and the musical is one of the most joyous things you will see on stage,” Scherich said. “This group of middle-schoolers is not only some of the nicest kids I’ve ever worked with, but they are so much fun and their talent really shines through in these roles.”

“Elf The Musical JR.” is based on the 2003 New Line Cinema hit and features songs by Tony Award nominees Matthew Sklar (“The Wedding Singer”) and Chad Beguelin (Disney’s Aladdin On Broadway, “The Wedding Singer”), a book by Tony Award winners Thomas Meehan (“Annie,” “The Producers,” “Hairspray”) and Bob Martin (“The Drowsy Chaperone”).

The musical tells the story of a young orphan who mistakenly crawls into Santa’s (played by Kaiser Gorraiz) bag of gifts and is transported to the North Pole. The would-be elf is given the name Buddy (played by Cassidy Craige) and raised by elves in the North Pole. Buddy lives happily unaware that he is actually a human until his enormous size and poor toy-making abilities cause him to face the truth.

With Santa’s permission, Buddy embarks on a journey to New York City to find his birth father (played by Rowen Warren) and discover his true identity. Faced with the harsh reality that his father is on the naughty list, and his stepmother (played by Hutton Hein) and stepbrother (played by Chloe Von Roemer) don’t even believe in Santa, Buddy is determined to win over his new family and help New York remember the true meaning of the holidays.

The cast is rounded out with Emmie Strang playing Jovie, Lola Sembrat as Deb, and Virginia Wilkes, Ava Hagen, Andrew Charlton, Jack Spencer, Olivia Hatcher, Ian Strang, Sophie Sheppard, Karla Gutierez, Amy Guerrero and Lily Young playing a host of colorful characters you’ll recognize from the movie.

The Sheridan Arts Foundation was founded in 1991 as a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization to preserve the historic Sheridan Opera House as an arts and cultural resource for the Telluride community, to bring quality arts and cultural events to Telluride and to provide local and national youth with access and exposure to the arts through education. The Sheridan Arts Foundation is sponsored in part by grants from the Telluride Foundation. CCAASE and CCI.