While things get off to an expected silly start in Monty Python's Spamalot, I was still waiting to pee my pants by the end of Act One. This new Broadway musical (based on the very funny film Monty Python and the Holy Grail) which has just opened and is supposedly sold out through October is landing like a big giant Trojan Rabbit...it's all big and showy, but there isn't much on the inside except some stale air. Between trying to ignore audience members speaking along with the show as if it were Rocky Horror and trying to stretch your legs in the extremely cramped seats, it was hard to enjoy a show that I was admittedly expecting too much from.
Things do get off to a rollicking start (and I'm warning you now, there are plenty of spoilers below) as the voice of Eric Idle tells us to let our cell phones and pagers ring all we like, but to remember there are knights on stage carrying deadly weapons. An historian then comes on stage to set the scene in England's Middle Ages. The first number arrives right after this as some cast members have obviously confused England with Finland and they present us with "Fisch Schlapping Song". And anyone who knows Python will know this bit. Once the historian corrects matters, we get to meet King Arthur (Tim Curry) and his servant Patsy (Michael McGrath) as they come clopping across the stage with their requisite coconuts in place of live horses. At the Mud Castle we get "King Arthur's Song" (which is pompous in it's announcement of "I'm Arthur! King of the Britons!", yet I'm still humming it) and we get the whole discussion of the air speed velocity of swallows before we change locations.
At the Plague Village, we meet the man in the film known as The Dead Collector, but here, even though he's dressed the same, he's actually Sir Robin (David Hyde Pierce). And we not only get the requisite "Bring Out Your Dead" bit from the film, but we also meet Sir Lancelot (Hank Azaria) who is bringing out his dead friend known as Not Dead Fred to join in with all the plague victims in "I Am Not Yet Dead", a funny...but unmemorable song. Both Robin and Lancelot then run off to join Arthur's Merry Men.
Arthur continues his quest for men to join him as he comes across Dennis Galahad (Christopher Seiber) and his mother. Once the scene from the film is out of the way, we meet the first true new character for the stage in The Lady of the Lake (Sara Ramirez). She rises from the stage with her "Laker Girls" for the unmemorable number entitled "Come With Me" in which she tries to convince Galahad that she's not just some "watery tart"...but luckily this is quickly followed up by what is not only the funniest song in the show, but what could be the funniest song in any show EVER!
"The Song That Goes Like This" is the typical romantic ballad that tends to drop smack in the middle of any Broadway musical...except this one knows what it is. Ramirez and Seiber poke fun at every lyrical convention that has propped up every mediocre musical of the last three decades. From odd key changes to the song going on forever, these lyrics (as well as the fog enshrouded boat and dangling chandelier that come with it) are worth the price of admission. Of course, the song doesn't actually add anything to what little plot there is.
Sir Bedevere (Steve Rosen) gets short shrift and barely an intro before the five knights launch into "All For One" which just seems to be nonsensical repetition in addition to being the motto of "The Three Musketeers". Luckily, we then arrive at Camelot and get a big budget, over blown version of the song from the film (which is where the show's title comes from as the knights of Camelot "eat ham and jam and spamalot"). Luckily, this bit is as funny as it's ever been and keeps the show's energy up.
Then we get to see the feet of G-d as he (John Cleese's voice) tells them to seek the Holy Grail. The Lady of the Lake then inspires the group with "Find Your Grail" which may be as close to a message as this show may ever get (we apparently each have our own that we seek...metaphorically speaking). Act One ends with the Knights running away from the French Castle after that whole scene (including catapulted cow) gets re-enacted onstage.
Act Two opens in a very expensive forest (we're told this both in the program and by the historian) and the knights are all separated on their own quests for the Grail. After meeting the Knights of Ni, Patsy cheers Arthur up with "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"...stolen from Monty Python's Life of Brian. Luckily, it's well done.
"Brave Sir Robin" (yes, we get that song from the original film as well...and it's still funny) gets scared off by the Black Knight and then Arthur meets up with said knight and dispatches him in the same way as he does in the film (I won't spoil how they cut off all his limbs, but it is rather clever and uses a great, but cheap joke as misdirection). After wanting a shrubbery, the Knights of Ni want Arthur to put on a Broadway musical, but Robin has to explain why "You Won't Succeed on Broadway" which is easily the second best song of the show. Apparently you absolutely must have a Jew...and then they re-enact the bottle dance from Fiddler on the Roof using Grails instead of bottles.
Immediately after this, the Lady of the Lake storms on stage for "The Diva's Lament" in which she complains of having nothing to do so far in Act Two and its almost over. The show then moves right into the whole Swamp Castle set piece from the film in which Lancelot rescues Prince Herbert from his father. Prince Herbert is still more interested in singing than marrying a princess and he gets two songs "Where Are You" in which he pines to be rescued and "Here Are You" after Lancelot rescues him. We're then subjected to the answer of Lancelot's sexuality (which I didn't realize was a question) in "His Name is Lancelot"...a number that looks like it was written to parody The Boy From Oz but since that show's gone it just wasn't as timely.
The scene returns to Arthur who sings "I'm All Alone" with his faithful servant Patsy at his side (it's a one note joke that goes on a bit long for a song...we get it, he's not really alone). Then the Lady of the Lake appears for a reprise of "The Song That Goes Like This" with Arthur so they can kiss. The knights then regroup and encounter Tim the Enchanter and the Killer Rabbit before actually finding the Grail (BIG SPOILER....if you can purchase your tickets to include seat A101). And then, since this IS a musical-comedy, the show ends with a wedding (or two if you count Lancelot and Herbert) and a medley of most of the previous songs before curtain calls and an audience sing-a-long version of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life".
Monty Python's Spamalot is a fun show, don't get me wrong, but it's also a very fluffy show. It's all style, no substance. What was cutting edge comedy in the mid 70s seems quaint and stale. Almost the entire film is represented on stage in odd ways and the stuff that is missing will leave you asking why its missing. The cast is having fun doing the show and the audience is enjoying watching it...and yet there should have been more.
If you're looking for hysterically funny musical comedy current running on Broadway I'd say check out Avenue Q and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels before trying to hunt down tickets for this.
That's all for today. Sorry to disappoint.
Be seeing you.
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