Monty Python's Spamalot: Trib theater review + photos

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

Is 'Spamalot' digestible?
Python fans rejoice: Musical succeeds on sheer comic goodwill

By Michael Phillips
Tribune theater critic
Published January 10, 2005

A good time for Monty Python obsessives as well as the Python-indifferent, "Monty Python's Spamalot" shares much in common with Hormel's mysterious canned product, the one packed with chopped pork shoulder meat and a few other things. You're not entirely sure what it is, but you can enjoy it first and ask questions later.

This $11 million musical expansion of the 1975 film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," directed by Mike Nichols and continuing its pre-Broadway Shubert Theatre tryout through Jan. 23, spends roughly one-third of its two hour and 20 minute duration relying, agreeably, on the best bits from the movie. It spends one-third running after all sorts of musical theater styles and pastiche targets, ranging from Vegas flash to "West Side Story" (nobody said the jokes were up to date) to Andrew Lloyd Webber ballads. And it spends one-third paying slavish homage to Mel Brooks and "The Producers," right down to a "Fiddler on the Roof" bottle dance, done here with multiple holy grails atop multiple hats worn by a chorus line led by one of King Arthur's knights.

The song in question, "You Won't Succeed on Broadway," is sung by David Hyde Pierce, top-billed but far from the most vivid presence. He plays Sir Robin. His second-act quest has to do with finding some Jews to put into his Broadway show--don't ask--because without Jews, no chance on Broadway. If that sounds questionable in terms of taste, it is. Idle skirts the edge of patronization here. If that also sounds like a departure from the movie's plot, you're forgetting the movie had no plot.

snip

Many of the film's vignettes show up in "Spamalot" unmusicalized and very, very close to the originals: The limb-hacking encounter with the Black Knight, for example, or the brilliantly modulated double-talk routine with the two densest guards in the history of medieval guard-dom. Other scenes did not make the cut, among them the castle full of female spanking enthusiasts, or the scene on the Bridge of Death spanning the Gorge of Eternal Peril.

More (registration required, includes link to WGN-TV review with more stills from production): http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-010510spamalot,1,988928.story

Theatergoer reviews: http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/search/39855,0,6231268,reviews.event

Photos by Joan Marcus, (C)2005 Chicago Tribune


Tim Curry as King Arthur and Sara Ramirez as The Lady of the Lake in the world-premiere engagement of "Monty Python's Spamalot."


David Hyde Pierce, Hank Azaria, Chistopher Sieber and Steve Rosen


Michael McGrath and Tim Curry

[SemiCharmedQuark]

1. Yep, I saw it. It was fantastic!

We saw it on the 21st. Eric Idle was there! He even stayed and signed autographs!

[AllegroRondo]

2. Great job on the costumes!

[Systematic Chaos]

3. Other than the Blue Man Group...

...I think that would be the only show here in Vegas I would pay to watch if they ever ran it here. Of course that is most unlikely, but still.

[Waistdeep]

4. I'm going next week

My son and I got tickets for Christmas. It's going to be fun!

[Tyrone Slothrop]

5. I have tickets for the night after opening in NYC

My girlfriend got them for me for Christmas.

I'm awfully excited!

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

6. Knights of the Round Table KICK n/t