Susan Granger’s review of “Spamalot” (Shubert Theater, 2004-2005 season)
You don’t have to be a Monty Python fan to devour “Spamalot” – but it helps! With an absurd book, puns and bawdy lyrics by Monty Python veteran Eric Idle, music by John Du Prez and Mike Nichols’ smart, screwball direction, it’s laugh-a-lot lunacy.
The lunatic opening number sets the zany, non-linear tone. A historian appears with a map, intoning, “England 932 A.D., a kingdom divided. To the West, the Anglo-Saxons. To the East, the French. Above, nothing but Celts and some people from Scotland. Legend tells us of an extraordinary leader who arose from the chaos to unite a troubled kingdom…Arthur, King of the Britons.” The scene then erroneously cuts to Finland, where Scandinavian peasants are singing, dancing and schlapping each other with dead fish in a mock musical. Oops!
“I said, ‘England!'” the historian corrects…as droll King Arthur (Tim Curry) rides in on an imaginary horse, accompanied by his lowly vassal Patsy (Michael McGrath). His merry medieval cohorts soon appear: most memorably, cowardly Sir Robin (David Hyde Pierce) and gay Sir Lancelot (Hank Azaria). Parody reigns as Sir Galahad (Christopher Sieber) duets with the Lady of the Lake (Sara Ramirez) in “The Song That Goes Like This,” sending up Andrew Lloyd Webber romantic arias, complete with chandelier, and a knight chorus line apes “Fiddler on the Roof” with goblets on their heads, culminating with “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,”
Credit Casey Nicholaw’s choreography, Tim Hatley’s crazy sets and costumes, Hugh Vanstone’s lighting and a superb ensemble cast. So if you’re in the mood for a stupendously silly, banal, merry old time, head for a feudal farce known on Broadway as “Spamalot.”