Interview: Kabir Gandhi of ELF THE MUSICAL at The Fox Theatre

The national tour of ELF THE MUSICAL is preparing to bring holiday cheer to Atlanta’s Fox Theatre December 16 - 21 as part of the 2025/2026 Regions Bank Broadway in Atlanta season. To learn more about this special holiday treat, I caught up with Kabir Gandhi, a Duluth native and member of the ensemble, to talk about his journey from Georgia to the stage, the magic of ELF, and what it means to perform for his hometown crowd.

BWW: Kabir, thanks so much for taking time to speak with me. I’m excited to hear more about you, ELF, and its Atlanta run at The Fox!

Kabir Gandhi: Of course. I'm excited to get talking!

To start, I'd love to hear more about your journey in the theatre.

I grew up in Duluth, Georgia, and my first show was my mom being like, “You want to try this out?” So, I did a show in the fourth grade, and I've kind of been hooked ever since. I went to college for musical theater. I got my degree at Indiana University. I got a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theater, and since then I worked on a Disney cruise ship for a year, was on tour with MEAN GIRLS, and now I'm on tour with ELF. And it's been a lovely, fulfilling, great, great old time.

I imagine it is exciting coming home to Atlanta and getting to perform at The Fox. Did you get to do that with MEAN GIRLS, or is this going to be your first time on stage there?

No. I joined MEAN GIRLS after they visited The Fox. So, it's my first time at the beautiful Fox Theatre. And I do remember, when I was in high school, I came and saw FINDING NEVERLAND and I remember the beautiful stars in the audience. I'm very excited.

That's amazing. I always love talking to folks who grew up going to The Fox and then getting to finally be on stage and seeing it from the other view. It's a full circle moment in a lot of ways.

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm a firm believer that, I'm only here because of all the people that built me up to be here, whether it be my family or my educators. And I'm so grateful that a lot of that community is going to come out and see the show. So, it's going to be so emotional.

So you'll have a large crew coming to see it, I'm sure, being local?

Yes. I have a large crew from the area. I also have my high school theater teachers coming. I also have family from India who are flying in. So, I'm very excited.

Let's talk about ELF. I think it's probably familiar to a lot of our readers because of the film but for those “Cotton-Headed Ninnymuggins” who don't know anything about it, how would you describe the story to them?

Well, first and foremost, I would be excited for that person to experience our musical as a first introduction. But the story kind of follows our main character, Buddy. He grew up in the North Pole and realizes that isn’t an elf after all, but a human. So, we follow Buddy as he ventures out of the North Pole in an attempt to find his family and reconnect with them. One of my favorite parts is it's so sentimental. There's a lot of fun family stuff, a lot of really hilarious jokes. And with our show specifically, it's the production that was on Broadway last year. So, we have a lot of really cool glitz and glam, big fun theater surprises, and a lot of singing and dancing in a really exciting way.

And you're part of the ensemble. Tell me a little bit about what you get to do in that role. Are you playing lots of different characters? Are you in the production numbers? What's it like for you?

So, in the ensemble, we get the opportunity to do some of this brilliant choreo. The choreography is originally by Liam Steele. And so, we kind of serve as the general populace of wherever we are—whether we're the North Pole or Macy's or the streets of New York. And I get the opportunity to play all of those tracks. There's a bunch of random but important little things here and there. And yes, I’m involved in all the big production numbers, which is really exciting. We get some tap dancing, we're jump roping with tinsel, and we have big old candy cane poles. There's a lot of fun stuff.

How familiar were you with the musical before you joined the tour?

Actually, a little. I did a regional production of ELF in Indiana near my college over winter break one year. So, it was really special and fun to revisit it, but this time on the tour. But yeah, I love the musical and it does such a good job of holding everything that we love from the movie and putting a new light on it and adding that big Broadway glam.

And I think this is obviously the perfect time of year for getting to see, everyone's in a festive mood and it adds a new musical theater twist to “let's revisit our favorite Christmas movies”—instead, now let's visit them in a new way.

Of course. And I will say there have been some beautiful edits that have refreshed it in a fun way. There are going to be a few jokes that the audience is like, “I can't believe they said that.” So yeah, lots of fun things coming Atlanta's way.

Is there something in particular that you look forward to the most before you go out on stage each night? Is there a moment, a scene, a song—something where you're like, "I can't wait to do this part"?

Yeah, absolutely, and I'm going to give you two. My first is, there's a number called “Just Like Him,” and it's when Buddy gets to visit Walter, his father, at work, and they're in matching suits, and then I'm part of the ensemble that comes and supports Buddy with a bunch of outrageously funny dancing together. We're doing some crazy lifts and turns and there's Buddy throwing snow all over the stage. For whatever reason, doing that number—and I'm sure the audience feels the same way—it lifts my spirit. So even if the first part of the show for me was a little harder than normal, after that number, I'm good to go.

That is my personal favorite to do, but one of my favorites from the show is called “There is a Santa Claus,” and it's a duet between one of our child actors who plays Michael and his mom, Emily Hobbs. And it is just so tender and heartwarming. And you will not believe the talent we have from these kids. It's quite spectacular. I kind of get emotional every time I watch it. So that's one of my favorites to hear because I enter right after. I'm always off stage and a little teary eyed. And I think that's something our creatives did really well. It is absurd—I'm not going to lie. It's funny. It's slapsticky in the best way. But something that our director, Dave Solomon, the associate for the Broadway show, really talked a lot about was the humanity in the show and how it is funny, but it's also real. And I think that's something that really shines through in our production. It's really special.

How long have you been on this tour?

We started rehearsing in September. So, it actually hasn't been that long of a time. We just hit our halfway point. We're a month into performing and we have a month left. And it's the perfect chunk of time for this holiday season.

So, what have audiences been like?

Oh, they've been good. And it's funny because we've been moving around a lot. Right now we're in Chicago. But the closer we get to Christmas, as soon as we cleared Thanksgiving, you could tell the energy was in the air. The audiences have been ready for a little Christmas joy, a little community spirit. It's been fun to see how receptive audiences are. And I'm not going to give anything away, but there's a really big surprise in the show and seeing everyone's reactions to that all around the country is really special. So I'm excited for everyone to come enjoy our production.

I always like to ask if you have any advice for young performers who are looking to get into the world of theater.

I would say the biggest two things for me are: one, really just keep grinding away at it, right? It's such a special thing. I'm sure there's a lot of people who do theater in high school and to make that choice to continue doing it and are like, “Hey, I'm going to make this a professional endeavor for myself.” It's hard, but just keep grinding away at it because it is a possibility. And with that, the other thing is really just believe. I will say I've had a lot of moments on this tour and especially my last tour as well, where I'm on stage in these places and I'm blinking and being like, “I can't believe I'm here.” And I'm sure I'm going to have that at The Fox as well. It's been really special. Just believe in yourself and believe in the vision because it is possible.

I know you said you still have this next month to go, but once we get into 2026, I'm curious, is there anything else you have lined up or what's next for you after ELF?

I'm just going to go back to New York and start auditioning again. I think it's an exciting time for me because I've been traveling a bit with my work. I've never actually had the chance to live in the city, so I'm excited for that coming up in 2026.

Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you think readers would like to know about yourself or about the show or what to expect?

As someone who has done this before, I am blown away by the level of talent that I get the privilege to perform with every night. I really do think our cast is special. Being up there with these people and these voices and these storytellers—it really brings a new life to the show in a way that I personally wasn't even expecting. I was kind of gobsmacked, you know? So I'm excited for audiences to experience the reality I've been living in for a month and a half, you know?

ELF THE MUSICAL plays at the Fox Theatre Tuesday, December 16th through Sunday, December 21st as part of the 2025/2026 Regions Bank Broadway in Atlanta season. Tickets are available at the Fox Theatre box office at 660 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30308 and by visiting foxtheatre.org/elf or by calling (855) 285-8499. Group orders of 10 or more may be placed by contacting sales@foxtheatre.org. Performances are Tuesday, December 16th through Thursday, December 18th at 7:30 PM, Friday, December 19th at 8PM, Saturday, December 20th at 2PM and 8PM, and Sunday, December 21st at 1:00PM and 6:30PM.

Lead Photo: ELF North American Tour Company, 2025 Photo by Evan Zimmerman for Murphymade

Top Photo: Kabir Gandhi

Mid Photo 1:Jack Ducat (Buddy) and Andrew Hendrick (Santa) in ELF North American Tour, 2025. Photo by Evan Zimmerman for Murphymade

Mid Photo 2: ELF North American Tour Company, 2025 Photo by Evan Zimmerman for Murphymade

Mid Photo 3: Jeff Brooks (Walter Hobbs), Camden Kwok (Michael Hobbs/Little Boy), and Yara Martin (Emily Hobbs) in ELF North American Tour Company, 2025. Photo by Evan Zimmerman for Murphymade