Reviews 2006
Reviews 2006
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music by John Du Prez & Eric Idle,
book and lyrics by Eric Idle, directed by Mike Nichols
Mirvish Productions, Canon Theatre, Toronto
July 15-September 10, 2006
"The Bright Side of Life"
This summer the Mirvishes offer two musicals based on epics set in the Middle Ages, or a time like them, about quests for magical objects. Over at the Princess of Wales one can see the spectacular but deadly serious “Lord of the Rings” (reviewed above). Newly opened at the Canon one can see the deliberately tacky and profoundly silly “Monty Python’s Spamalot”. Monty Python fans, of course, will have no trouble choosing which to see. They’ll be over the moon with this staged version of the 1975 film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”. Those who seek sentiment and lush beauty won’t find it in this mercilessly satirical show and should head over to “Lord of the Rings”. They will, however, miss out on an evening filled with laughter.
As in the film, “Spamalot” follows King Arthur’s efforts first to gather knights for the for the Very, Very Round Table and then after direct intervention by God to find the Holy Grail, a cup, it seems, that He has somehow misplaced. Python alumnus Eric Idle, author of the book and lyrics, has transferred whole swaths of dialogue directly from the screen to the stage, including the debate about swallows and coconuts, serfs working in a semi-autonomous collective, insults from the French Taunter, arguments with the Knights Who Say Ni, Herbert’s father’s vain attempts to give instructions to his son’s guards and passages from the holy Book of Armaments. As in the film King Arthur prances about on an invisible horse to the sound of his servant Patsy playing coconut halves, the French pull in Sir Bedevere’s Trojan Rabbit, Arthur encounters the Black Knight who doesn’t give in even when he’s lost all his limbs and a Killer Rabbit chews off Sir Bors’s head.
There are some significant changes, however. Except for Galahad’s mother, played as in the film by a man, all the prime female roles have been cut. There is no witch burning scene, we never meet Prince Herbert’s intended bride and, most surprising of all, the whole sequence involving the desperate virgins of Castle Anthrax including the twins Zoot and Dingo has been cut. Instead, Idle has created a major female character, referred to but not appearing in the film, the Lady of the Lake. She functions rather like Arthur’s good angel by getting him out of trouble when things look more hopeless than usual. Idle obviates the need for Castle Anthrax providing a surprise revelation, even to Lancelot, about his sexual orientation. This leaves the female chorus to function Benny Hill-style solely as titillating decoration.
Just as “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” made fun not only of Arthurian legend, but also of the conventions of filmmaking in general, so the musical based on it satirizes of the conventions of musicals. The film begins with several false starts including the opening credits and first scene of the 1961 film “Dentist on the Job”. In the musical after the Historian has given us background about 10th-century England, the curtain rises on a scene of peasants in colourful costumes doing the famous “Fisch Schlapping Dance” in their native Finland. Oops, the cast misheard “Finland” for “England” and have to start again. Two songs by Neil Innes from the film make it into the score--“Knights of the Round Table” and “Brave Sir Robin-- along with “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” by Eric Idle from “Life of Brian” (1979). Contrary to expectations, the famous “Spam Song” does not appear. The title derives from a line in “Knights of the Round Table”: “We dine well here in Camelot/ We eat ham and jam and spam a lot”.
John Du Prez and Eric Idle’s music parodies everything from Rossini to gospel, disco and rap. Andrew Lloyd Webber comes in for special ridicule in the self-referential duet “The Song The Goes Like This” for Galahad and the Lady of the Lake about sappy romantic show-stoppers that are reprised ad nauseam. Meanwhile, the song’s endless key changes upwards eventually make it too high for the actors to sing. In Act 2, the Lady of the Lake sings “The Diva’s Lament (Whatever Happened to My Part?)” about having been offstage so long. Arthur sings “I’m All Alone” to his miffed servant Patsy, who is joined by an increasingly large chorus. The one satirical song I could have done without is Sir Robin’s big number “You Won’t Succeed on Broadway (Without Jews)”. Before it concludes with a version of the bottle dance from “Fiddler on the Roof”, it drags out so many tackified Jewish references like a Star of David in marquee lights that, unlike all the other numbers, an unwelcome sense of mean-spiritedness creeps into it.
“Spamalot” may be a touring production but the cast and presentation are absolutely top-notch. Michael Siberry in the Graham Chapman role of King Arthur makes Arthur less an obsessed lunatic and more a wonderfully grandiloquent dolt. Bradley Dean is excellent in the Michael Palin roles of the Marxist peasant Dennis who becomes Sir Galahad and Prince Herbert’s unpleasant father as well as the John Cleese role of the indefatigable Black Knight. David Turner sounds very much like Eric Idle in Idle’s roles of Sir Robin and Brother Maynard and is quite funny at showing Robin’s growing displeasure when his minstrels’ ballads turn to ridicule. Terry Gilliam’s role as Patsy has been much expanded and Jeff Dumas draws out all the humour of a servant continually neglected by his illustrious master.
Yet, the performer who really steals the show is Rick Holmes in the John Cleese roles of Sir Lancelot, the French Taunter and Tim the Enchanter as well as the Michael Palin role of the head Knight Who Says Ni. He is hilarious in the scene when Lancelot discovers his sexual orientation is not what he thought it was and suddenly finds himself the reluctant star of a Peter Allen-inspired showstopper until he gradually gets used to the idea. He is even more manic than Cleese in the French Taunter’s vituperations and captures all the looniness of the Knight of Ni.
Other fine performances come from Tom Deckman as the pompous Historian; Not Dead Fred, the man who protests he is not quite ready for the plague cart; and funniest of all a Prince Herbert even more effeminate that Terry Jones was in the movie. Christopher Gurr also channels Terry Jones as Dennis’s Mother, Sir Bedevere and Concorde. And John Cleese appears via recording as voice of God.
Pia Glenn in the sole major female role has a lot to do to hold up the distaff side of what is mostly a boys’ night out. Luckily, she has a marvelous voice and a vibrant presence. She has a comic gift for sending up the many clichés of pop vocals no matter what the idiom. The show’s most memorable song not from the film is “Find Your Grail” which she sings both straight and as a send-up of gospel music.
For the costumes for characters from the film, Tim Hatley has stayed very close to Hazel Pethig’s original designs. For all the other costumes--the faux Finnish peasants, the Lady of the Lake and her backup singers, Lancelot’s new South American friends--he creates outfits that are highly coloured, intentionally clichéd exaggerations showbiz costumes. Hatley’s scenic design is imbued with the eccentric cartoon style of Terry Gilliam. And Elaine J. McCarthy’s projections, also in Gilliam’s style, give the sense of animation integrated into the show as it was in the film.
Famed director Mike Nichols has done a splendid job of catching exactly the right tone of gleeful absurdity. Indeed, on stage much of the dialogue sounds even funnier than in the film because it is so clearly and precisely spoken. If you want grand spectacle and earnestness there is “Lord of the Rings”. But to such an outrageously imaginative, laugh-out-loud show like “Spamalot”, who could say Ni?
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Jeff Dumas and Michael Siberry. ©Joan Marcus.
2006-07-26
Monty Python’s Spamalot