Monty Python's Spamalot by Eric Idle and John Du Prez (review)

REVIEWS73 eric idle and john du prez, Monty Python's Spamalot. Boyett Ostar Productions and the Shubett Organization. The Shubert Theatre, Chicago. December 21, 2004January 23, 2005. (Note: the production here reviewed was a pre-Broadway preview; Spamalot will doubtless get better, tighter, and zanier by the time it atrives on Broadway, where previews begin on February 14, 2005.) On precisely the same day that the DVD version ofthe Antoine Fuqua KingArthur went on sale, Monty Python's Spamalot, the stage musical version oí Monty Python and the Holy Grail, had its first preview performance at Chicago's Shubert Theatre. No doubt about it—a ticket to the musical is the better buy! The 1975 film sent up the Arthuriad in general, and cinema arthuriana in particular. The musical does the same—and more, sending up the musical theater genre as well with song and dance numbers shamelessly 'borrowed' and 'adapted' from Mack andMabel, Song and Dance, West Side Story, The Producers, Dreamgirls, The Wiz, Company, Fiddler on the Roof, and anything from Busby Berkeley. Also in the mix is a French cow, tarted up as a chanteuse, who sings dolefully under a lamp post à la Marlene Dietrich before being launched into the air to the cries of'fetchez la vache'—a scene, alas, now cut, according to the trades, from the show. There is also a Lancelot—part thug, part toad wattior—with a more modern 'idiom' which he announces in a medieval rendition of 'At the Copa' à la Barry Manilow. We are even treated to a Wagnerian (albeit Wagner lite) leitmotif in the well-known song 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' from the Python's Life ofBrian. With book and lyrics by Eric Idle, music by Idle and John Du Prez, and direction by Mike Nichols, the Broadway-bound Spamalot's cast play multiple roles as in the film, with top billing here going to David Hyde Pierce as Sir Robin, Hank Azaria as Sir Lancelot, Sara Ramirez as the Lady ofthe Lake, and Tim Curry as King Arthur While the film opens with Swedish subtitles and multiple sackings, the musical opens with a Finnish folk dance punctuated with multiple face slappings (with large fish, ofcourse). The cast, it seems, has misunderstood the last sentence ofthe learned historian's infotmative prologue, taking the location ofthe play for Finland rather than England—the famous Finnish Arthurian connection, mayhaps? And events just get sillier from thereon! Song and dance numbers follow in rapid and energetic succession, and many will doubtless be more than familiar to aficionados of the film: 'I'm Not Dead Yet,' 'Burn Her,' 'Knights of the Round Table,' 'Btave Sir Robin,' and 'He's Going to Tell.' There are some nice original touches too. Dennis is transformed into a flamboyantly handsome Sir Galahad forged in the Fabio mode. The Lady of the Lake (whose real name we eventually learn is Guinevere) is joined by her Laker Girls in a pep rally for the reluctant Galahad. Camelot is still 'a silly place' but one that looks to be part of the Excalibur Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, father than some place in Somerset or Winchester. The recurring musical lyric sung in several versions, 'The Song That Goes Like This,' mocks every Broadway cliché from a lovers' duet to a discontented diva's complaint about her time on stage. Prince 74ARTHURIANA Hcfbcft and Lancelot actually find true love (with each other) and plan to run off to Canada to get married after which they hope to open a cuttain shop. Sir Robin dons top hat and white tails to sttut down a staircase à la Fred Astaire under the illumination of a neon Star of David to remind King Arthur that 'You can't get to Broadway without any Jews.' (Not to wotry, Patsy, the loyal royal steed and squire, reveals that he is a member ofthe tribe.) And, in fine flourish, Arthur and the Lady of the Lake wed in the show's finale. Interspersed among these scenes, all the familiar and favorite vignettes play out in high Python style. The voice of John Cleese (er, God) commands Arthur to undertake the quest for the...