There’s something to be celebrated when a Broadway musical has no social redeeming value. A show created to be pure entertainment, utterly silly, inane, yet gloriously hilarious. “Lovingly ripped off” from the iconic cult film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Spamalot is pure non-PC.
Presented by Theatre Under the Stars, this touring show written by Python alumnus Eric Idle (book, lyrics, music) and John Du Prez (music), tweaks the King Arthur myth into the stuff of flying cows (“la vache”), a flatulent French watchman (“I fart in your general direction”), sexy Las Vegas-like Laker Girls (the hot cheerleading guardians of the Lady of the Lake), non-chivalrous Sir Robin always messing his pants (“Run away, Run away”), a closeted Sir Lancelot, a preening Sir Galahad who tosses his hair like a Clairol commercial, Arthur’s coconut-clapping vassal Patsy, the Knights Who Say ‘Ni,” demanding a shrubbery for passage through their territory, fey Prince Herbert in his tower who only wants to be in a Broadway musical, and that ultra-cute but deadly killer white rabbit. The movie’s all here, all the highlights, everything you remember.
The whole show is tongue-in-cheek, middle finger in the air, and a kick in the ass to the show biz adage of “let’s put on a musical.” It’s vintage Monty Python with patented vaudeville antecedents Milton Berle, Ernie Kovaks, Soupy Sales and Carol Burnett. It’s as anarchic as the Marx Brothers, but silly as a Looney Tunes cartoon. It is utterly delightful. Just go with it.
The audience is primed, ready to mouth the movie’s dialogue as they sing and whistle along to Life of Brian’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” You can’t fault nor stop the pull of nostalgia.
The production is first-rate: sets and projections by Paul Tate de Poo III (The Great Gatsby), slinky costumes by Jen Caprio (the Lady of the Lake has an instantaneous coup de theatre costume change which is pretty mind-blowing), and swanky direction and choreography by Josh Rhodes. Nothing lingers, which is just what you want from Python. Keep it moving, keep us laughing.
The cast is top-notch. As Arthur Broadway pro Major Attaway (the hyper genie from Aladdin), Amanda Robles as second banana Lady of the Lake who wonders what happened to her part in Act II’s “Diva’s Lament,” Leo Robert’s vainglorious Lancelot, Chris Collins-Pisano’s French Taunter and the two-story Tim the Enchanter, Blake Segal’s anonymous Patsy, Steven Telsey’s Narrator and Prince Herbert, and Sean Bell’s cowardly Sir Robin. The entire cast has as much fun as we do.
But..and this is a large wobbly but..the sound inside Hobby’s Serafin Hall is atrocious. Half the show is garbled and muffled beyond comprehension. I understand that a touring show brings in its own equipment and often doesn’t have enough time to fine tune the sound for each particular venue, but this visit is plum awful. The Hobby’s always been too big for Broadway (whose small NY theaters date from the 1920s). Even though a lot of the audience knows the movie by heart, most lyrics dissolve into the ether, and the laugh lines don’t land as they should. Does no one hear this? We hope TUT’s projected new theater center will remedy this.
But the enjoyment rolls on, thanks to the ultimate timeless zaniness of Monty Python. Spamalot has no message. It has no uplift. It exists only to bring joy. It does that in spades. Go laugh yourself silly.
Spamalot continues through April 26 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at the Hobby Center, 800 Bagby. For more information, call 713-558-8887 or visit tuts.org. $46-$169.
