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Spamalot History
The blend of star appeal, Python pedigree and a
handful of decent gags might well be enough to make
Spamalot a runaway hit. (Or, as the hapless King
Arthur would say, a "Run away!" hit.) That alchemic
combination of old material and new stagecraft,
however, rarely takes place. The beloved Python
routines are performed with relish but little in the way
of fresh insight. Most surprisingly, many of the new
jokes feel like placeholders, as if the script were
riddled with Post-Its saying, "Fine for now until we
think of some thing funnier." Perhaps director Mike
Nichols and bookwriter/lyricist/co-composer/Python
veteran Eric Idle were distracted by the need to cobble
together even the barest structure from their source
material. The 1975 cult classic Monty Python and the
Holy Grail lurches from one shaggy bit of surrealism
to the next without the slightest concern for narrative
or characters.
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Much of the movie remains intact: From the Knights Who Say "Ni" to the holy hand grenade, the
essential sketches are presented almost verbatim. A rudimentary romance between King
Arthur and the Lady of the Lake has been added, though, and several of the knights have more
material to work with. Spamalot also bothers to come up with an ending, unlike Holy Grail. (The
two do share an unfortunate weakness for opening gags about Finland.)Like The Producers,
an obvious inspiration, Spamalot bolsters its source film's few familiar songs with a set of
robustly unmemorable melodies. Nichols, Idle and composer John Du Prez
hedge their bets, giving three or four up-tempo tunes a glitzy hard sell ratherthan earmarking a
single "big number." A plague-be-damned song called "Not Dead Yet" comes off well, and "The
Song That Goes Like This," an oft-repeated paean clichés to the Lloyd Webber-style pop
musicals, is almost as clever as the show thinks it is. Here and elsewhere, Tim Hatley's clever
sets and costumes pay frequent homage to Holy Grail as well as to the wider worlds of Python
and Broadway. In fact, several songs adopt the fashionable habit of tossing in pop-culture
references, particularly to other Broadway musicals. Fiddler on the Roof, Les Miserables,
Company ("Another hundred people just contracted the plague," sings one character) and
several other shows come in for lampooning. But for all the time devoted to the references, the
satire is fairly toothless. (Gene Shalit gags in 2005?) Forbidden Broadway does the same
thing year after year with a fraction of the volume and twice the knowing wit. Nichols has also
been asked to stage several daunting visual effects from the movie, and he's particularly
successful with the airborne cow and ferocious rabbit. (Hatley's sets and Hugh Vanstone's
tantalizing lighting share the credit here.) The sequence involving a fearless and increasingly
limbless knight also gets a thoughtful restaging. Nichols has less luck pushing choreographer
Casey Nicholaw to go deeper than the show's Susan Stroman-lite dance sequences. The
capable chorus is responsible for much of the dancing, giving Curry, David Hyde Pierce and
Hank Azaria a chance to rest before the next Python sketch. This blue-chip trio leads a hardy
group of comic actors by goofy example: Curry's plummy baritone and Azaria's chameleonic
mimicry are no surprise, but Pierce displays a nimble song-and-dance flair (including some
solid piano skills) that make the most of the show's would-be Act II showstopper, "You Won't
Succeed on Broadway."
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But Spamalot is, to a surprising degree,
an ensemble show. Christopher Sieber
comes off best among the secondary
leads, particularly as an increasingly
exasperated father, and Christian Borle
and Michael McGrath also have their
moments. (McGrath does particularly
well by a musical number imported
from the Python film Life of Brian,
although the song suffers by
comparison in this relatively defanged
setting.) Ramirez, who plays all the
female roles, has been hailed as a
scene stealer since Day 1 of its out-of-
town tryout, and while it's true that she
dazzles throughout, the effort in doing
so is transparent. The show all but
demands that the audience adore her,
and her abundant vocal and comedic
gifts are compromised as a result.
Spamalot generates an awful lot of
smiles and a decent number of giggles.
And that's more than a lot of musicals
can say. As the Pythons famously
reminded us in song, it's important to
always look on the bright side of life, no
matter what. It's just a bit surprising that
Spamalot, with its advance hype and
dreamy cast, would require anyone to
do any looking.
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Availability and Shipping of Spamalot Tickets
When purchasing tickets to Spamalot at the United Center or any other
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