Walking into the William Saroyan Theatre on March 3, I grabbed a playbill for Monty Python’s Spamalot, the musical version of the popular film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).
Needless to say, after opening it and finding a list of fake characters, fake songs and a fake play altogether, I knew the performance would be amusing from the beginning.
The tale begins with King Arthur’s (Steve McCoy) frustrating search for knights to inhabit his round table. He soon finds Lancelot (Adam Grabau), Sir Galahad (Jacob L. Smith), Robin (Martin Glyer) and Sir Bedevere (Matt Ban), with the help of The Lady of the Lake (Caroline Bowman) and her Laker Girls.
The Knights of the Round Table soon become distracted and are drawn to a “new” round table — one of roulette.
During this wild trip to Camelot, they discover their purpose as a medieval crew. The knights become assigned to a quest by God (Eric Idle) to search for his Holy Grail. During this journey, they encounter many impediments, including rude Frenchmen, flying cows, man-eating rabbits and “knights who formerly said ni.”
The play ends with an uncreative wedding scene and musical number in which everyone is happy, and they find the Holy Grail with a little extra help from God. Though this play did not have any real substance, the slapstick comedy brightened my night.
However, my first impression of Monty Python’s Spamalot was not a positive one. The stage was set up very simplistically and the orchestra pit had only six people in it. Based on what I saw, I was not expecting a musical of high caliber.
But within the first few measures of the technology-enhanced musical score, I was drawn in to this comedic musical. So, when the actors finally came out from behind the curtains, they had energetic standards to meet.
The high standards set by the musicians were definitely met by the players. Every performer poured out their heart and soul on stage, leaving no lazy moments for any character. There was unceasing movement of the characters and sets that flashed and moved around the stage, which constantly kept the audience entertained.
Even the sets were impressive aspects of the musical comedy. With working drawbridges, tall towers and forests of trees, the sets played a vital role in creating an atmosphere for the audience to be drawn into.
But this musical had a way of “playing yo-yo” with its spectators. When viewers had been pulled into the scene, the characters had a way of reminding them that they were indeed viewing a stage production, thus completely destroying any mood of realism that had been created.
Despite this downside, the overall aura of the play was entertaining and dramatic, and the characters contributed to the success of this production.
King Arthur was the butt and the punchline of every joke. This leading actor used inflection of his voice to emphasize the things he mocked. He never laughed or even chuckled out of line, and he kept his composure all throughout his amusing lines.
Another character that stood out was the Lady of the Lake, that is, King Arthur’s wife Guinevere. She was the ubiquitous guardian angel to the motley crew, who drew the audience’s attention to the clich
