Spamalot

Critiqued by Holly Bartges

May 15, 2009

Seconds before Conductor Ben Whiteley directed the first note for Monty Python’s opening night of Spamalot at the Buell Theatre Tuesday night, anticipation ran through the audience in wild desire. Not be tamed until hours after the theatre darkened, the parking garage stood empty, and theatergoers forced themselves to go to bed.

John O'Hurley stars as King Arthur in Monty Python's Spamalot. Photo Credit: Eric Jamison © 2007 .

Spamalot. “lovingly ripped off from the motion picture Monty Python and the Holy Grail” offers upside down twists and raucous perspective to King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the search for the Holy Grail. How did Arthur gain possession of Excalibur? How did he become King? Where did he find his Knights? Aha! Thought you knew. Spamalot’s intensive late night research reveals new information.

Seconds before John O’Hurley wandered onto the stage he had the audience already eating out of his hand.

As the vulnerable, naive, slightly dim-witted King Arthur, the audience wrapped themselves snugly around his aura.

Christopher Sutton’s Not Dead Fred endeared him to the audience seconds before the eager awaited line, “I’m not dead yet” floated from the stage.

Mistaken for an old woman, Ben Davis awed the audience with his transformation into Sir Galahad and his rich golden voice, his desire to become a Knight, and his shocked surprise discovering what a Knight actually does.

Merle Dandridge as The Lady of the Lake bulged the eyes transforming her rich, sweet voice instantaneously to a raw, boisterous depth most Bass singers can’t imagine.

The Lady’s Las Vegas Laker Girls thrilled even the youngest members of the audience with their crisp choreography in scant costumes and in-sync movements.

James Beaman endeared himself to the audience as the sensitive, creative, dreaming Sir Robin who finds his Grail in Broadway Musicals. Never mind it will be another thousand years before anyone hears the term Broadway Musical. Sir Robin’s song You Won’t Succeed On Broadway melts the house. After the Holy Grail, King Arthur sets his sights on finding Jews. Without any Jews, nothing on Broadway can succeed. Eventually, he does find one in the most unlikely place.

The heart of the House wrapped itself around Jeff Dumas as Patsy, King Arthur’s “patsified” servant, particularly when Arthur finds himself lost in the Most Expensive Forest, inviting himself to a Pity Party singing “I’m All Alone”. Indeed, he isn’t all alone. Patsy stands beside him. Dumas’s eyes peer through his muddied make-up and ragged clothes taking center stage to Arthur’s full melting rich voice, all the while feeling sorry for himself.

Seconds before a scene change, noiseless anticipation shouts from the House. The cow, the cow comes next. The very tall empty wooden Rabbit brings squiggles of delightful laughter.

Merle Dandridge as The Lady of the Lake in the National Tour of Monty Python's Spamalot. Photo by Joan Marcus

Then there’s the nano second before the Beast shows himself. As Tim the Enchanter deliciously portrayed by Matthew Greer, booms, “Follow, but follow only if ye be men of valor. For the entrance to this cave is guarded by a creature so foul, so cruel that no man yet has fought it and lived.” A bunny? A cute, soft, white bunny? The Knight who literally laughs it off  looses his head. (3 feet of blood has to be ironed before each performance.)

One very creative, funny line topples into another melding distance between 932 A.D. and 2009 A. D. tying King Arthur and contemporary values to connect. Space was made Tuesday night to clue the audience into the Nuggets winning score sending them to heights not seen for some time. Every line, every move, and every flick of the eyebrows were perfected with calculatingly choreography. Well, except for one. One of the character’s eyebrows couldn’t be seen. All that could be seen of God was a pair of very big shoes and legs. John Cleese, himself, provides the voice  booming somewhere beyond the rafters.

The innocuous, mad, obnoxious, outrageous magic of Monty Python crashed into the world scene on October 5, 1969 through the collaborative mind of Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gillian, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin, and the world of comedy has never been the same since.

In 1974, it was one hysterical element when Monty Python filmed Monty Python and the Holy Grail. How could it get any more outrageous? Any funnier? Any more appreciated? Any more well loved? It couldn’t until Idle and veteran Python composer John Du Prez wrote the first draft of Spamalot in 1972.

Hear a sound from the brilliant orchestra never before heard? Send the mind whirling to identify what instrument could possibly produce such a sound? No it’s not some strings with a muffler attached. No, it’s not a horn buried in a keg of beer. It’s a Spama-horn specifically developed for and used only in Spamalot.

Wandering A Very Expensive Forest, Arthur. Patsy, and the Knights find themselves accosted by the Knights of Ni who take them into the cloudburst song Always Look on the Bright Side Of Life. The characters on stage didn’t need the orchestra to cue them. The audience was ready to accompany the characters unable to keep the music locked in their heads. It is one of those incredible wondrous songs that cannot be referenced, cannot just be thought about. It has to be sung. Sing they did, softly, but sing they did. During the curtain calls, and standing ovation, their hearts joined in full volume with the incredible cast.

Steven Wenslawski, Christopher Sutton, Matthew Greer, David Havasi as the French Guards in the National Tour Of Monty Python’s Spamalot. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Spamalot directed by Mike Nichols, and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw isn’t just an exquisite comedic affair, with an overwhelming set and costume design by Tim Hatley melded together in “perfect harmony”, it showered the Python Magic on a Full Buell House melding 1200 plus individuals into a camaraderie many try to attain, but few succeed.

When Lady of the Lake leads Arthur, Patsy, the Knights and the Grail Girls into Find Your Grail, every mind in the Buell whispers to itself, “Me too.”

When Robin discovers his, when Arthur and the Lady find theirs, when the adorable, talented Prince Herbert (Jeff Dumas) and Greer’s Sir Lancelot find theirs, the cheers are not only for the scriptwriters, and the characters’ execution, but also for everyone willing to find theirs. Wow! What perfect timing for Spamalot to arrive here and now.

Amidst the laughter, the anticipation of knowing what comes next, the brilliant comedic lines following on the heels of misguided Knights who want parties, the honor of being a Knight with ladies swooning at their feet, back off when they discover, (Oh-No), Knights have to fight? the ingenious melodic songs, the opportunity to laugh hard, comes at a perfect time in our disgruntled upside-down society rushing to gain its balance, knowing it will, holding its breath to know the when and how, facing the cave “guarded by a creature so foul, so cruel, no man has yet fought it and lived” drive home humming “Get On The Bright Side of Life.”

Spamalot is magic; pure, simple magic.

There is, however, one flaw, one unavoidable, disappointing flaw. The run ends May 17.

Stand at the Big Feet of God (which happens to weigh 1700 pounds), beg for the Hand of God and if it descends for Arthur, why not you? Do whatever needs to be done. Do not miss this stunning, hilarious, wondrous production of Monty Python’s Spamalot.

Spamalot
Featuring John O’Hurley