'Very funny? You bet. You'd have to
be a dead parrot not to agree.' The
Times.
'It's a wonderful night and I fart in
the general direction of anyone who say
otherwise.' Daily Telegraph.
'I felt I might actually die of
laughter.' The Independent.
Monty Python's Spamalot is 100% pure
entertainment. Lovingly ripped off from the hit
movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail by
original Python Eric Idle, and directed by
Oscar-winning director Mike Nichols, this
musical comedy is filled full of big laughs,
great songs, dazzling choreography, historical
inaccuracy and special effects you just won't
believe could be performed in a top West End
theatre today!
Spamalot retells the legend of King Arthur
and his Knights of the Round Table with the help
of a number of gratuitously scantily clad
showgirls, cows, killer rabbits, French people
and a legless knight.
Sanjeev Bhaskar plays King
Arthur, following in the footsteps of Tim Curry,
Simon Russell Beale, Peter Davison and Alan
Dale. Bhaskar is best known as from TV's The
Kumars at No. 42 and Goodness Gracious Me. His
other credits include Art on stage and Scoop,
Anita and Me, The Guru and Notting Hill on
screen. He joins Nina Soderquist,
who won Swedish reality TV show West End Star,
achieving a massive 59% of the public votes in
the final, as the Lady of the Lake.
"Lovingly
ripped off" from Monty Python And The Holy
Grail, Spamalot retells the story of King
Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table (one
of whom has to push the pram a lot). The classic
tale of a heroic hunt for the Holy Grail is
augmented with catapulted cows, bloodthirsty
rabbits, insulting French people and
gratuitously under-dressed showgirls.
Tim Curry, who starred as King Arthur when
Spamalot opened on Broadway, recreates his
role in this production. Curry is replaced from
January 2007 by Simon Russell Beale, who is
currently starring in the production on
Broadway.
Spamalot, which features book, lyrics
and music by the third tallest Python Eric Idle,
won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Musical and won
a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album.
"Spamalot's infectious, irrepressible
energy is contagious!" Newsweek
Directed by Mike Nichols,
Eric Idle’s Spamalot was a runaway hit before the first performance even
began. The musical, based on the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail,
is a souped-up, big budget musical packed with extensive production values and several
new songs. It is most successful, however, when it is faithful to the
original source material.
The story revolves around the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round
Table. Tim Curry plays the hapless Arthur, who goes in search of the Holy Grail
and along the way finds disdainful Frenchmen, killer bunny rabbits, knights who
say “Ni" and other such wackiness. The
movie has been supplemented with some added bits and a bizarre storyline in
which the characters have been mandated to find Broadway, where the Holy Grail
now awaits. The second half of the show is spent in pursuit of the elusive
Broadway – in a yet undiscovered continent and several hundred years into the
future.
The added material doesn’t always work. The Camelot as Vegas bit (“What happens
in Camelot, stays in Camelot") is good for a few laughs, but the creation of a
long production number drains the scene of its initial hilarity. Conversely, the
funniest routine of the night features the gifted Christopher Sieber as a
frustrated father imprisoning his son with the help of two incompetent guards.
This classic “Who’s on First" skit actually gets funnier the longer it goes
on…and on...and on. Better that the
creators had stuck to the original sketches as Spamalot works best during
these vintage Python routines.
As Arthur, Curry is perfectly cast – he has a strong presence, a beautiful
baritone and manages to seem kingly and clueless at once. The Knights include an
uncharacteristically subdued Hank Azaria, as the outed Lancelot, and the
appealing David Hyde Pierce, making a successful Broadway debut as the cowardly
Sir Robin. The latter is particularly effective in “You Won’t Succeed on
Broadway," a soft-shoe number that shows off the TV actor’s theatrical chops.
But it is Sara Ramirez, as the Lady of the Lake, who
stands out and steals the show from her talented male counterparts. Ms. Ramirez
is a stunner – all curves, huge eyes and a striking, expressive face. She is an
accomplished comedienne and has a voice with a range that can pretty much do it
all. From Andrew Lloyd Webber-inspired musical operetta to the smoothest of
jazz to Vegas-inspired cabaret numbers,
this Lady delivers them all in a star-turn that brings to mind the musical
theater’s legendary grand dames. One can
easily picture Ms. Ramirez as Miss Adelaide, Mrs. Lovett, Annie Oakley and in
any number of the great parts usually reserved for the likes of Bernadette
Peters or Patti LuPone. It is when she is onstage that the show really takes off
and its weaker parts don’t seem to
matter.
While the show is uneven—some jokes do fall flat and some bits go completely
over the audience’s head—it ultimately doesn’t matter. The gags keep coming, one
after the other, and the ones that do hit their target are priceless. Armed with
a strong cast, brisk and dynamic direction by Nichols, and general outlandish
silliness, Spamalot will delight both devotees of Monty Python and
regular theatergoers in search of a much-needed escape into a madcap world where
they can always “look on the bright side of life."
Seating Plan:
Location Map:
