Calgarian joins Broadway debut tour of ‘ELF’ stateside

If your kid loves to put on shows and won’t stop doing cartwheels in the living room, it’s a good sign they may enjoy dance or a program like the Young  Canadians.  And sometimes, those early programs turn into something bigger.

That’s the case for Calgary’s Vanessa Mitchell, who is spending this winter performing in the first-ever U.S. Broadway tour of Elf: The Musical. The Broadway staging has been produced before, including in London’s West End, but this marks the show’s debut as a full touring Broadway production across American cities. 

Mitchell grew up in Calgary’s dance and youth theatre ecosystem.

“ I joined the Young Canadians at the age of eight… I started ballet classes at three years old at McDonald Wilson Dance Academy and stayed with them all throughout high school,” she says.

She also trained at Central Memorial’s dance program before moving to New York to study musical theatre at AMDA.

“I just always dreamed of working on Broadway… when I went to New York for school and got a taste of that, I just loved it so much that I didn’t want to leave,” she says. “New York is my home now.” 

Because this is the first U.S. Broadway tour of Elf, the staging reflects the Broadway version directly, original choreography, Broadway direction restaged for the road, and a company built for a touring footprint. Mitchell’s role is on-stage swing, which means she performs nightly, but could play a different part every time. 

“I basically understudy the ensemble… you have to be ready at a moment’s notice if someone is ill or injured, and it’s a lot to learn all the different parts but that’s the creative challenge I love,” she says.

The production keeps the recognizable movie moments, but the stage version adds scale.

“There’s musical numbers with lots of singing and dancing and crazy props getting thrown everywhere and blasting the stage with Christmas,” she says.

Unlike long-running North American broadway tours, Elf  is a compact two-month holiday schedule through U.S. cities, which means a different kind of Christmas this year for Mitchell’s family back home. 

“My parents will be home for Christmas, but they’re coming out to see the show in Atlanta… and then I’m going to go [to Arizona] for New Year’s.” Her family will meet there, where her grandmother spends her winters. 

Once the production ends around New Year’s, Mitchell heads straight into audition season again.

“There’s auditions every day in January, so hopefully I’ll book something exciting next,” she says.