'Elf the Musical' tells the story of 'Elf' in a new, but very familiar way; see it at DPAC next week

After its release way back in 2003, "Elf" quickly earned its Christmas classic status. Today, it's one of the top grossing Christmas movies of all time and the inspiration for a Broadway musical, which will stop at the Durham Performing Arts Center next week.

This is the third season that Caitlin Lester-Sams is part of the touring show behind "Elf: The Musical." The Michigan native, who graduated with a drama degree from Western Michigan University a decade ago, plays the role of Emily, who is married to Buddy the Elf's biological dad.

"Elf" fans, she tells me, will find a lot to love about this live version of the movie. (For the uninitiated, the movie follows the story of Buddy, a human who was raised in the North Pole as if he was an elf. Once he realizes that he's human, he travels to New York to meet up with his biological father, a grumpy children's book publisher.)

"You’re going to hear a lot of the same great lines and jokes that you love from the movie," she tells me. "You’re going to spot them in our show as well. The storyline stays very true to the movie, but the biggest addition is the singing and dancing because it's a musical."

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Music plays a big role in "Elf," the movie version. Jovie, Buddy's co-worker and love interest, sings "Baby It's Cold Outside." And, in one of the final scenes, Jovie leads a crowd to sing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."

Neither of those songs appear in the musical, Lester-Sams tells me.

"The score is all original music," she said. But, it works.

"I love the way they adapted the show," she said. "It works really well as a musical. ... They've included a lot of fun details that make it a really authentic, modern musical."

As Emily, Lester-Sams gets to spend a lot of time on stage with the child actor, who plays her own son.

"There's a lot in the show that is for kids and for families," she said.

In fact, Lester-Sams' own father doesn't love "fluffy pieces of theater," she says. But even he fell in love with the show.

Her father, she says, "really buys this story of a modern overworked New York family, who really figures out a way to find some true optimism and some true Christmas spirit. That is really the heart of the story."

And it doesn't hurt that it's a Broadway-level production. The crowd goes wild, she says, for a big production number called "Sparkle Joy" where Buddy encourages disgruntled Macy's employees to decorate the store.

"It's a really exciting number," she says. "They do this whole transformation of the set throughout the number. And that gets the party started - where you really see the influence that Buddy has over everyone around him."

Another bit kids love especially - at the end, just like in the movie, Santa will fly away.

Lester-Sams was in Dallas when we spoke, wrapping up performances there before heading to Durham. From here, she'll travel to Toledo, New Orleans and Pittsburgh. The tour ends Dec. 30.

"After doing it for multiple years, Elf, for me, is Christmas time now," she said. "I'm already really happy to be a part of it and hopefully give audiences a little part of it as well."