Wolves in the Walls at the New Victory Theater

[ellen_datlow]

Just came back from the National Theatre of Scotland's musical production of Neil Gaiman's children's book Wolves in the Walls conceived of (partly) and designed by Julian Crouch, who created the amazing Shock-Headed Peter. Rick Bowes and I went and who should we meet outside? Alisa Kwitney, Claudia Gonson (they didn't know each other until I introduced them), and then Neil, his film agent, Merrilee Heifetz (his and my agent) and her family...The musical doesn't open officially till the 14th and runs for a week but these are my impressions.

The production looks gorgeous, the wolves are wonderfully wrought. The mother, an actress named Anita Vettesse was brilliant--great voice, charismatic and perfect in the role. The brother played by Paul James Corrigan was also terrific. They each had excellent showstoppers to perform. The father played by George Drennan was good, but he didn't have enough to do and no great showstopper. Unfortunately, the girl Lucy, played by Helen Mallon, was unintelligible. Her Scot accent was so strong that we could only understand about one of every ten words. And she tried too hard to play a kid. I'm afraid that I don't see how her performance can be improved in the short time remaining --but she was absolutely the wrong person to have play for an American audience. The sound all around was not great--very muddy-- and difficult to understand any of the lyrics when all four of the main characters sang together.

The kids in the audience were entranced, even though there were some very scary bits. Ysabeau Wilce's "pig" (or a "pig" impersonator) played a crucial role.

So recommended with the above caveats.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The wolves deserve their own show. Or at least a video that could go up on YouTube.

Rick Bowes

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I agree. The BEST part of the whole show was when the wolves took over the household and "acted" out the inhabitants' roles --this is not much of a spoiler.

[maryrobinette.livejournal.com]

I am seriously looking forward to this.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Very worth seeing, even if you can't understand a word the girl says :-)

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Excellent! I'm going next week!

[(Anonymous)]

I could understand Lucy perfectly well. Bear in mind that the its a National Theatre of Scotland production and they chose a Scottish lead because it's a Scottish production. She's exactly the right person to play for an American audience.

[(Anonymous)]

Plays in which the actors have accents don't bother me--after all the rest of the cast, who were all Scottish were perectly comprehensible.
I've seen a number of Irish plays in NY and again, the actors were perfectly understandable. This was NOT the case with the actress who played Lucy. I was not the only person who complained in the audience.

This is a play meant for a mass audience--the lucky thing is that it barely matters what she says because the overall action is so much fun. I'm sure the kids in the audience understood her even less than I did but for them again, it didn't matter as much because they were entranced by everything else (as I was).
Ellen Datlow
Not on my computer so no access to my account password. Btw, if you're going to post on my lj please provide your name. Anonymous posts are a no-no.

[deliasherman.livejournal.com]

I just saw it last night, along with a bunch of friends, and liked it very much. Oddly enough, I found Lucy utterly comprehensible and the brother not so much--mostly because he was talking way too fast. The body language was clear, though. The kids in the audience laughed and giggled a lot, so clearly something was getting through.

The wolves were prime. Also Pig Puppet. And it wasn't nearly sold out. So it's not perfect--go anyway. Good children's theatrical fantasy is not thick on the ground.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, it was loads of fun. And I loved pig--which reminds me, I've got to let Ysabeau know there's a major "pig" in the show.