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

Abstract

74ARTHURIANA Herben 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 Grail. The French knights ate rude to Afthur. Arthur defeats the Black Knight and the Knights Who Say Ni (acquiring a shrubbery in the bargain). The mighty wizard Tim warns Arthur ofthe true nature ofa seemingly harmless looking bunny rabbit (played marvelously by a peppy hand puppet), and Arthur and his knights dispatch the rabbit turned killer with assistance from Brother Maynard, the Book ofArmaments, and the Holy Hand Grenade ofAntioch. Along the way, puns, forced rhymes, and sight gags abound. From beginning to end, Spamalot is hilarious. Tim Hartley's sets and costumes are inventive and—in some cases—dazzling. The cast's ensemble work is above reproach. Sara Ramirez plays every major female part, and her Lady of the Lake is the stuff ofTony nominations. The first major retelling of the Arthuriad for the new millennium is not an overly ponderous film full ofself-importance and claiming a Saftnatian connection to the Arthurian legend. Rather, it is a stage musical, Monty Python's Spamalot, that refuses to take the Atthuriad, itself, ot much of anything else too seriously. Nothing is sacred; nothing is spared in this marvelous send up of myth and ofmusical theatre, and perhaps that's the message ofthe Arthurian legend for our times. DEBRA N. MANCOFF / KEVIN J. HARTY The School of the Art Institute of Chicago / La Salle University eric idle and John DU prez, Monty Python's Spamalot. Boyett Ostar Productions and the Shubert Organization. The Shubett Theatre, New York. Broadway preview, February 18, 2005; opened March 17, 2005. The Broadway production of Spamalot gleefully inhales you before you hit the aisle: it's an 'event'—frisson is in the air. Ticketholders swarm together in late wintet's chill at the theatre's door laughing and reciting lines from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. You'll hear 'ni! ni! ni!' before the crush propels you to the booth selling the Arthutian consumer's eyeful of Holy Hand Grenades, squishy Killer Rabbits, and the best Grail tee-shirts available this side of, well, paradise. However much you spend on your ticket, prepare to spend twice as much on memofabilia. Don't forget to get your special golden edition of Spam! Once seated, people read their Playbill aloud to explosive gurgles and giggles. The title is first given as Bin Faaarkrekkion's new Moosical, 'dik od triaanenen fol (Finns Ain't What They Used To Be),' based on an idea from 'Sid, Coco and REVIEWS75 Edith Piaf In one wink of the eye, you can check off Monty Python and the Holy Grail, comic vaudevillians, hoofers, chanteuses, and high style. We will view, we are told, the 'story, in music and song, ofFinland's transformation from a predominantly rural agricultutal base to one ofthe most sophisticated industrial and entrepreneurial economies in the world.' And the PL·ybilldoesn't stop there, but gives us biographies of the cast and staff, of which this director's entry is but one: tanaka ING (Director). The only non-Finn in the company, Ing has a long histoty in experimental theatte, including Churchill's History oftheEnglish SpeakingPeople in mime, a salsa version of the Tibetan Book ofthe Dead and a puppet version of the U.S. Population Census of1973. A great tennis lover, Ing went to Finland for a contemplation weekend and found himselfhooked. "I love trees and always have, and in Finland thete...