Elmo the Musical Elmo the Musical is a " Sesame Street " segment that began airing in the 43rd season . The segment was featured in every episode until Season 46 , where it alternated with " Elmo ' s World . " The segment was dropped after the season in favor of new editions of " Elmo ' s World . " In each eleven - minute 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 Sesamestreet . org . A version of the segment was in incorporated into in the " Sesame Street Live " show " Can ' t Stop Singing " . A stage show version of the segment was added to Sesame Place in 2014 . An illustrated segment , " Elmo ' s Dinosaur the Musical , " appears in the " Sesame Street " comic book " Blast from the Past " . Starting in the fall of 2015 , segments used in the half - hour edits of re - run episodes and new editions premiering in season 46 now run around seven minutes long . Behind the Scenes . Replacing Elmo ' s World . Production on the " Elmo ' s World " segments had ceased in the late 2000 ' s , 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 , leaving the " Elmo ' s World " segment as the youngest - skewing portion of the program , something Parente wished to change even before production halted . Development . 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 . Production . Each episode took a day to film ; the initial segments were filmed between January and February 2012 . All the material was filmed in front of a bluescreen , with the performers dressed in blue to allow characters like Elmo to appear full - bodied . Magnetic Dreams Animation Studio , known for producing other animated segments for the show , provides the CGI elements of the segment , including the backgrounds and animated characters . Each episode costs approximately $ 275 , 000 to produce . International . In late 2013 , the segments began airing on ABC Kids in Australia and well as in Germany on KI . KA as a separate mini - series . In 2014 , the segments began airing in Dutch as part of the " Sesamstraat " mini - series , " 10 voor " . _ _ NOWYSIWYG _ _