Elmo the Musical

Elmo the Musical is a Sesame Street segment that began airing in Season 43. It appears in every episode until Season 46, where it alternated with Elmo's World.

In the segment, Elmo teaches math skills while imagining himself in different musical situations, such as "Sea Captain the Musical", "Mountain Climber the Musical", "Prince Elmo the Musical" and "President the Musical". Joining Elmo in his adventures is Velvet, a talking set of curtains, and a series of animal and Anything Muppet friends.

The segment's theme song was composed by Adam Schlesinger, while the legal registration ascribes lyrics to six of the "Elmo the Musical" staff writers: Molly Boylan, Annie Evans, Belinda Ward, Joey Mazzarino, Luis Santeiro, and Christine Ferraro. The song was nominated for the 2013 Daytime Emmy Awards in the "Outstanding Original Song – Children's and Animation" category, along with "I'm the Queen of Nacho Picchu" from the "Guacamole the Musical" segment.

Interactive game versions of some of the segments appear on the Sesame Street website. Elements of the segment (including Velvet) appear in the "Sesame Street Live" show "Can't Stop Singing".

Starting in the fall of 2015, segments used in the hour edits of re-run episodes and new additions starting with season 46 now run around 7 minutes long.

Production on the Elmo's World segments had ceased in the late 2000's, the last new segment airing as part of the 2009 season. The segment was meant to appeal to kids younger than the target age of the show (two years and younger). Executive producer Carol-Lynn Parente was not too pleased with the success it received, as it was targeting an age the show's curriculum was not designed for. The "block format" experiment of season 40 proved to be a ratings hit, attracting more children between the ages of 3–4[2], leaving the "Elmo's World" segment as the youngest-skewing portion of the program, something Parente wished to change even before production halted.

In June 2011, Joey Mazzarino and the other writers began developing new ideas for the new segment. One idea was to have Elmo go on road trips using his tricycle. Mazzarino stated Elmo's character was all about his excited view of the world and large imagination and they decided to go with an idea based on those characteristics. The idea of a musical segment came around and with the success of musical programs like High School Musical and Glee, the writers decided it was a good idea to move forward with.

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