It's so dumb, but it's so funny!
"Spamalot," which opened a highly humorous weekend run at the Fox Theatre last night, is filled with bad puns and word plays, jokes that do not deserve the peals of laughter they get, silly lyrics that create wonderful nonsense. And yet, this was the fourth or fifth time I've seen it and I laughed as hard as I did the first time.
Maybe I laughed more because I knew what the punch line were and anticipated them. Much of the crowd at the Fox seemed equally as familiar. And a woman behind me laughed merrily practically from start to finish. There were many not-quite teenagers in the house and I applaud their parents for exposing them to this, which could easily be called the theater of the ridiculous that makes many strong statements about humanity.
The musical states that it is "lovingly ripped off" from the movie, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," produced in 1975 and written by the original Python BBC-TV group, Graham Chapman, John Cleese,Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin; Idle wrote the book and lyrics for the stage musical, collaborated with John Du Prez on the music and also is heard (via recording) as the Voice of God. The stage version opened in 2005, won a Tony as Best Musical and includes a lot more spoofing of Broadway and musical theater.
Steve McCoy is a solid King Arthur, also solid as a brick between the ears, and his innocent approach to comedy is delightful. Caroline Bowman stands out as the Lady of the Lake, who dubs Arthur a knight in the early going, then morphs into Guinevere and marries him at the final curtain. She sings well and sparkles as a diva complaining that her part is being cut and in a duet with McCoy when they sing a standard musical love song, "The Song That Goes Like This," that parodies all musical's love songs.
That's typical Python humor, as is the fact that the program lists Sir Not Appearing, played by Shaun Patrick Moe. When Arthur finally gathers his knights, the last one to appear is costumed exactly like Don Quijote in "Man of La Mancha." He looks around, mutters, "I'm sorry," and exits stage right. This sort of humorous misplacement also happens in the opening scene when the chorus, in Scandinavian garb, sings "The Fish Schlapping Song," as Finnish villagers. After a couple of minutes, the historian-narrator (Thomas Demarcus) stops the song and reminds the singers they're supposed to be in England
Glenn Giron delivers excellently as Patsy, a page or squire who is to Arthur as Sancho Panza was to Quijote. He and Arthur, after adventures with the Knights of Ni and a French castle, have been searching for Jews because Sir Robin (a funny, winsome Martin Glyer) tells them that a prospective theatrical venture is dead in the water because "You Won't Succeed on Broadway if You Haven't any Jews." Patsy later tells Arthur he is half-Jewish, and when Arthur asks why he has not revealed this, Patsy replies, "That's not really the sort of thing you say to a heavily armed Christian."
The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch and the Evil Rabbit take some of the comedy moments to the well several times too often. Still, the Python humor, used often in a plea for social justice and the Golden Rule, returns when Prince Herbert (the excellent Jacob L. Smith, also a winner as Not-Dead Fred) gets involved with Sir Lancelot (Adam Grabau, equally winning as the French Taunter). This results in "His Name is Lancelot," outing both men, and an eventual wedding when Lancelot points out to his 11th-century peers, "A thousand years from now, this will still be controversial."
Music and dance, sets and costumes all work well, whether ridiculous or sublime, and they certainly go from one to the other. BT McNicholl and Scott Tyler recreated the direction and choreography, respectively, from the original work by Mike Nichols and Casey Nicholaw. It's glorious entertainment in every respect.
Spamalot opened Friday at the Fox, continues Saturday and Sunday with two performances each day.
–Joe
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I think this looks so fun! As a Python fan I’m going to have to go for sure!