Review: 'Spamalot' Is A Very Entertaining, Irreverent Musical
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Saturday night, “Monty Python’s Spamalot” made its one-night only stop at Honeywell, and the audience loved it, including myself.
I laughed almost non-stop throughout the evening, and left very satisfied.
The musical is based on the 1974 comedy “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”. If you’ve seen that movie, a lot of scenes in “Spamalot” will be familiar to you. But the musical is just as funny - even more so because it’s a musical, it’s live and it’s very irreverent.
The setting starts in England, but the villagers in the opening scene mistake what the narrator said for Finland and sing “Fisch Schlapping Song”. It has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the musical. But if you know Monty Python, then you see that the humor in the musical stays true to the Monty Python history.
“God” makes an appearance a couple of times in the show, initially encouraging King Arthur (Arthur Rowan) to go on a quest for the Holy Grail with a band of knights. God’s voice is a recording by Eric Idle, but he doesn’t appear physically except for his large feet.
The whole show is laced with very British humor, by the way, so it’s more irreverent than some American humor.
Throughout the show, the audience gets introduced to the knights who accompany King Arthur on his quest.
There’s Sir Bedevere (Thomas DeMarcus), who is smart but often clueless. The best example of Sir Bedevere’s personality is when he builds a Trojan Rabbit (not a horse, but a rabbit), but fails to tell King Arthur and the other knights they have to get inside it before giving it to the French.
Sir Robin (Kasidy Devlin) likes to think he’s brave, but when push comes to shove, he tends to soil his pants and runs away. He finally finds his true calling at the end of the show.
One of the most well-known knights is Sir Lancelot (Adam Grabau). He has a big secret that he doesn’t even know he has until he goes to rescue a damsel in distress. That mission turns out to reveal Sir Lancelot’s inner truth and leads to the number “His Name is Lancelot”, which sounds a lot like Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana”. The number had me rolling in my seat in Act II.
The last knight is Sir Dennis Galahad (Jacob L. Smith). During the show, no one can seems to get his name right, which isn’t a big confidence booster for him.
One of the most impressive voices in the show is that belonging to The Lady of the Lake (Brittany Woodrow). Her first number is “Come With Me” with King Arthur and the Laker Girls. The Lady and Sir Galahad then sing “The Song That Goes Like This”.
“Spamalot” references itself and other Broadway shows. The song “The Song That Goes Like This”, takes a jab at those big operatic, grand songs in musicals. You hear them sing it, you know exactly what they mean if you’ve ever seen a Broadway musical before.
Later in the show, The Lady in the Lake sings “The Diva’s Lament” where she wonders, “What ever happened to my part?” As great as the role of the Lady in the Lake is, you’ll wonder right along with her.
In Act II, a member of the audience gets pulled on the stage when a knight finds the Holy Grail under a seat. For Saturday’s show, that happened to be Times-Union reporter Dan Riordan, who went with me to see “Spamalot”. They took him on stage, presented him with an award for being the “best peasant” ever and took a Polaroid of Riordan with the cast.
I was glad I let him have the aisle seat because he is taller than me, although I was a little bit jealous he got to go on stage.
It was hilarious, however, to see him get pulled on the stage with the thousands of people staring up at him. As we left the theater, people kept asking him if he was the guy on stage, and that he did a great job. We stopped at McDonald’s on the way back, and he got recognized some more.
He had to have been the most famous person in Wabash Saturday night.
But it was all in good fun, and “Spamalot” was definitely worth the time and drive. I highly recommend the musical to anyone who wants to have a night of laughs.
My rating (out of 4): 4.
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Saturday night, “Monty Python’s Spamalot” made its one-night only stop at Honeywell, and the audience loved it, including myself.
I laughed almost non-stop throughout the evening, and left very satisfied.
The musical is based on the 1974 comedy “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”. If you’ve seen that movie, a lot of scenes in “Spamalot” will be familiar to you. But the musical is just as funny - even more so because it’s a musical, it’s live and it’s very irreverent.
The setting starts in England, but the villagers in the opening scene mistake what the narrator said for Finland and sing “Fisch Schlapping Song”. It has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the musical. But if you know Monty Python, then you see that the humor in the musical stays true to the Monty Python history.
“God” makes an appearance a couple of times in the show, initially encouraging King Arthur (Arthur Rowan) to go on a quest for the Holy Grail with a band of knights. God’s voice is a recording by Eric Idle, but he doesn’t appear physically except for his large feet.
The whole show is laced with very British humor, by the way, so it’s more irreverent than some American humor.
Throughout the show, the audience gets introduced to the knights who accompany King Arthur on his quest.
There’s Sir Bedevere (Thomas DeMarcus), who is smart but often clueless. The best example of Sir Bedevere’s personality is when he builds a Trojan Rabbit (not a horse, but a rabbit), but fails to tell King Arthur and the other knights they have to get inside it before giving it to the French.
Sir Robin (Kasidy Devlin) likes to think he’s brave, but when push comes to shove, he tends to soil his pants and runs away. He finally finds his true calling at the end of the show.
One of the most well-known knights is Sir Lancelot (Adam Grabau). He has a big secret that he doesn’t even know he has until he goes to rescue a damsel in distress. That mission turns out to reveal Sir Lancelot’s inner truth and leads to the number “His Name is Lancelot”, which sounds a lot like Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana”. The number had me rolling in my seat in Act II.
The last knight is Sir Dennis Galahad (Jacob L. Smith). During the show, no one can seems to get his name right, which isn’t a big confidence booster for him.
One of the most impressive voices in the show is that belonging to The Lady of the Lake (Brittany Woodrow). Her first number is “Come With Me” with King Arthur and the Laker Girls. The Lady and Sir Galahad then sing “The Song That Goes Like This”.
“Spamalot” references itself and other Broadway shows. The song “The Song That Goes Like This”, takes a jab at those big operatic, grand songs in musicals. You hear them sing it, you know exactly what they mean if you’ve ever seen a Broadway musical before.
Later in the show, The Lady in the Lake sings “The Diva’s Lament” where she wonders, “What ever happened to my part?” As great as the role of the Lady in the Lake is, you’ll wonder right along with her.
In Act II, a member of the audience gets pulled on the stage when a knight finds the Holy Grail under a seat. For Saturday’s show, that happened to be Times-Union reporter Dan Riordan, who went with me to see “Spamalot”. They took him on stage, presented him with an award for being the “best peasant” ever and took a Polaroid of Riordan with the cast.
I was glad I let him have the aisle seat because he is taller than me, although I was a little bit jealous he got to go on stage.
It was hilarious, however, to see him get pulled on the stage with the thousands of people staring up at him. As we left the theater, people kept asking him if he was the guy on stage, and that he did a great job. We stopped at McDonald’s on the way back, and he got recognized some more.
He had to have been the most famous person in Wabash Saturday night.
But it was all in good fun, and “Spamalot” was definitely worth the time and drive. I highly recommend the musical to anyone who wants to have a night of laughs.
My rating (out of 4): 4.
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