A NEW AMERICAN MUSICAL · IN TWO ACTS
Landlord-a-Claus
Rent meets Elf. Forty-eight thousand, six hundred candy canes — how do you measure a year at the Pole?
At the North Pole — a company town with one employer, one landlord, and one increasingly absent boss — the elves of Workshop Village are organizing. Their huts are leaking. Their pensions are paid in fruitcake. And their landlord, the man they once called Nick, has just rolled out a pilot program called ELFGENT.
Above the Title
- LANDLORD-A-CLAUSa.k.a. “Nick” — CEO, NorthCo Holdings, LLC. Bluetooth headset. Hardened.
- MRS. CLAUSoveralls, wrench, the only one who actually knows the boilers.
- PIPPA PINEBOUGH40-year veteran of the Workshop. President, Workshop Village Tenants’ Association.
- NOELLEthird-generation elf. Reads everything. The conscience.
- BIRCHyoung elf. Just got the layoff letter. Still believes.
- MR. KLAUSENproperty manager. Nephew. Candy-cane lanyard. Vibes.
- ELFGENT-7a hologram in a Santa hat. Voiced cheerfully. Means it.
- ENSEMBLETenants. Reindeer (union). One very tired auditor from the Department of Labor.
Musical Numbers
Act One
- A Letter to the North PoleNoelle & Company
- We Built the SleighPippa & the Tenants
- Transitional PostureMr. Klausen
- The Numbers Are DownLandlord-a-Claus
- Forty-Eight Thousand Candy CanesCompany
Act Two
- Meet ELFGENTLandlord-a-Claus, ELFGENT-7 & Company
- The Day I Have No One Left to PayLandlord-a-Claus
- Wrench in My HandMrs. Claus
- Birch’s LetterBirch
- Light the Workshop (Reprise: We Built the Sleigh)Company
From the Director
This is a Christmas show that is not, finally, about Christmas. It is about a town with one employer. It is about what happens to the people who built the magic when the magic gets licensed, subcontracted, and finally, automated. It is for the ten-year-old in the third row and the parent next to her who pays the rent.
We have tried to write Santa not as a villain but as a man who stopped opening his own mail. The elves are not victims. They are organizers. And Mrs. Claus, as it turns out, has been holding a wrench this whole time.
— M.M.