THE HAPPY ELF: Elf shoes

By the Costume Shop's First Hand Daisy Lindas

We have had so much fun working on the costumes for Harry Connick, Jr.'s THE HAPPY ELF. The elf world is interesting to bring to life. In the show, the Elf world is a corporate business. Therefore the elf costumes are similar to a uniform. Every elf has a base of velour pants, shirt and a vest to go over the top with a matching hat (pointy ears and all), belt and of course, the pointy elf shoes!

That's the most common question we get asked, how do you make the shoes pointy? We first make a leather shoe cover that will go over a dance shoe. The "point" is really all about the leather pattern. The shoe will be glued with a special leather glue. Essentially it's sewn really tight which causes it to turn up at the front.

When you see Harry Connick, Jr.'s THE HAPPY ELF pay special attention to Eubie. He'll be wearing a "magical" hat. The director, costume designer and the actor playing Eubie, Jared Gertner, will discover what tricks the hat will do during rehearsal and then we have to figure out how to get the hat to do these tricks. He may just have to wear multiple hats so stayed tuned...