It makes sense that, like the Disney and Dreamworks studios, Warner Bros. would want to mine its cinematic properties for Broadway musical treatment. Less understandable is why, for their attempt at a Christmas perennial with an adaptation of the hit Will Ferrell comedy Elf, they would turn to the same composers responsible for their previous venture, the ill-fated The Wedding Singer.

Matthew Sklar and Chad Beguelin’s score for Elf--which has arrived on Broadway for a limited holiday engagement ala How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas--is similarly unimpressive, and the show, despite boasting plenty of talent both on and off stage, is a theatrical lump of coal.

Hewing closely to the 2003 film, it tells the story of Buddy (Sebastian Arcelus), a suspiciously tall elf who works for Santa (George Wendt) at the North Pole. When Buddy finds out that he is actually human, he sets off for New York City in search of his identity.

There, he finds his real father, children’s book publishing exec Walter Hobbs (Mark Jacoby), who now has a second wife (Beth Leavel) and young son (Matthew Gumley). While attempting to ingratiate himself to his curmudgeonly dad, the childlike Buddy strikes up a burgeoning romance with cynical Macy’s employee Jovie (Amy Spanger) and attempts to restore Christmas spirit to everyone concerned.

 “I’m an orphan, just like Annie,” announces Buddy at one point, but this show is no Annie, despite the fact that it shares the same writer, Thomas Meehan, here collaborating with Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone). Their charmless book is filled with plenty of cheap gags addressed to the adults (“Don’t go all Charlie Sheen on me” is a typical example) and topical updates (Santa uses an iPad to keep track of things) when it’s not being hopelessly corny. Clearly aimed at the annual tourist holiday influx, it features scenes set at such iconic NYC locations as the Rockefeller Center skating rink, the Empire State Building, Macy’s, Chinatown and even the now closed Tavern on the Green.

Director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw (The Drowsy Chaperone, Monty Python’s Spamalot) keeps things moving at a sprightly enough pace, with the occasional number, such as the elaborate “Sparklejollywinklejingley,” displaying real inventiveness.

But his efforts are defeated by the generic score featuring numerous songs struggling mightily to become Christmas standards but not hitting the mark. 

Arcelus, faced with the undeniably difficult task of filling Ferrell’s shoes, is largely unappealing in the lead role, seeming so young and boyish that all of the comedic potential of his man/child character is essentially squandered. The talented supporting performers are given too little to do to distinguish themselves, while Wendt’s endearing Santa is seen only in brief prologue/epilogue appearances in which he’s even forced to deliver the obligatory cell phone/candy wrapper warning.  

Al Hirschfeld Theatre, 302 W. 45^th St. 212-239-6200. www.Telecharge.com. Through Jan. 2.