The Wolves In The Walls
Based on the illustrated storybook by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
Directed by Vicky Featherstone
Starring Helen Mallon, George Drennan, Anita Vettesse, and Neil McNulty
The New Victory Theater — New York, NY

If the wolves come out of the walls, then it’s all over. — Lucy’s family in The Wolves In The Walls storybook

The musical for The Wolves in the Walls is based on a great children’s storybook written by my favorite author Neil Gaiman.

The story is about a young girl named Lucy who hears noises coming from the walls in her house and discovers that there are wolves living inside of them. As most stories like this go, when Lucy tries to tell her family, they don’t believe her. After a while, her family begins hearing the noises in the walls too. They tell her that it must be bats, rats, and mice, because if it IS wolves in the walls, and they come out, then “it’s all over.” Well, it wouldn’t be much of a story if the wolves didn’t eventually come out of the walls, now would it?

When this book came out a few years ago, my aunt and uncle (who took me to this play) gave me an autographed copy of it for my birthday. The author even drew a picture of a wolf in it along with a birthday message, so I was really excited to see the play. On my way to the theater tonight, I couldn’t help but wonder what the play and the theater itself (The New Victory Theater on 42nd St. in Manhattan) was going to be like.

On the bottom floor of the theater, there was a special little room with walls that were decorated with illustrations from the book, items that were mentioned in the book, and other things related to wolves (look below to see the photo I took of one of the walls). Inside the room were kids coloring their own wolf masks. Being a 14-year-old, I thought I was probably a little too old to participate, but I just couldn’t resist. Plus, my little brother (who accompanied me) is a little shy and wouldn’t have colored a mask if I didn’t do it too.

Being a 13-year-old, I obviously thought that Blades of Glory was hilarious and very unpredictable, but the adults who sponsored my viewing of this movie assure me that my assessment is accurate.

This is an outrageous comedy about two rival Olympic male figure skaters who become — of all things — skating partners! In the beginning of the movie, it’s both of them skating and at the award ceremony, they end up having to share the Gold metal. Being enemies, the two men, Jimmy MacElory (Jon Heder) and Chazz Michael Michael (Will Ferrell), get into a fist fight and get banned from figure skating for life. Not realizing that they were only banned from skating in the division that they were in, the two men abandon their dreams.

Several years later, Jimmy’s creepy stalker (Nick Swardson, who played the brother who was afraid of the Sun in Benchwarmers), finds out that Jimmy is still eligible to skate in the pairs division. Soon after, Jimmy’s old coach (Craig T. Nelson) gets him back into the rink and unexpectedly teamed up with Chazz to compete in the figure skating pairs division.

After the old rivals paired up, I was kept on the edge of my seat because I couldn’t imagine what their skating routine would be like. It was funny to watch two men try to do the same moves that a man and women would do, but surprisingly, after a few performances, it actually looked pretty good.

Throughout the hearing and competition scenes, a bunch of former medal-winning skaters who I didn’t know “” except for Brian Boitano, who I totally know thanks to South Park “” appear as themselves and after their significance was explained to me, I got the jokes. (Hey, I did mention that I’m 13, didn’t I?)

While watching this movie, I couldn’t think of what crazy thing would happen next. If you want to laugh out loud, I recommend that you go to see Blades of Glory immediately.