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Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Spamalot at TBPAC: A review
Posted by Leilani Polk on Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 1:06 PM
Editorial Assistant Franki Weddington attended the opening night performance of Spamalot last night. Here's her wrap:
Last night, I went to Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center’s opening performance of Monty Python's Spamalot, the Tony-winning Broadway musical ripped off from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Like most people, I thought that Grail had perfected the fart jokes, killer bunnies, and not-yet-dead schtick, but that was before I saw Spamalot — and that shit was downright side-splitting. Maybe even better (gasp!) than the movie. Pictured: Richard Chamberlain as King Arthur, and Jeff Dumas as Patsy; photo by Joan Marcus
My boyfriend, who is regularly dragged along to various theater events and musicals, even liked it. Which just goes to show that even if you don’t get all the Broadway-people-are-stuffshirts jokes, you’ll still appreciate the irreverence, candor, and modern humor Spamalot has to offer.
The musical borrows heavily from Monty Python’s most popular scenes, including a number called “I Am Not Yet Dead,” where a stack of plague victims leap from their cart into a rip-roaring song and dance. Later, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” becomes a pep talk to King Arthur, who is having terrible trouble finding a shrubbery for the Knights Who Say Ni.
References to current news and politics keep Spamalot from relying too heavily on old jokes, though. In one scene, Sir Lancelot calls for a doctor to “deliver the octuplets … and then get the mother to a psych ward!”
Spamalot gives those familiar with Broadway humor (oxymoron?) plenty to laugh about, too. When King Arthur is sent on a quest to create a Broadway musical (“just not an Andrew Lloyd Webber!”), brave Sir Robin tells him that they can’t succeed because “they don’t have any Jews.”
So, if you like Monty Python, Broadway musicals, or things that are just generally funny, Spamalot is for you.
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