We saw the new musical "Spamalot" last night. For the uninitiated, it's a musical "lovingly ripped off from" Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Eric Idle wrote it and it is having its pre-Broadway run in Chicago. A group of 20 of us went last night. We loved it. That "we" includes my musical-hating husband. It's laugh-out-loud funny, very faithful to the film where it draws from it, adds lots of fun new material, has no real plot, and no one cares. It's highly offensive to virtually everyone, completely ridiculous and over the top, and worth every penny. It's very meta - the mocking of musicals is blatant and spot on (including a song in the first act called "This is the song that goes like this" and a song in the second act by the only female character in the show, complaining that she hasn't been on stage in a while and her career is tanking because of it). We also had some fun celeb sightings last night, including Eric Idle sitting about 3 rows in front of me, and Mike Nichols (director) and Michael Palin standing in the back.
Hank Azaria really shone in this show - it's easy to foget when you see him in a movie or TV show just how versatile he is. In Spamalot, virtually everyone plays several parts, and Azaria excels in every one of them. He melts into the parts, does flawless accents and has flawless timing. It's brilliant. David Hyde Pierce is also excellent, although he's the weakest dancer among the principals. (He does have one extraordinarily fine "dance" moment during his big act 2 number, but I'd be spoiling it if I told you.) Tim Curry plays only one role (King Arthur) and he's wonderful at it. I'd forgotten what a nice voice he has. The female lead, Sara Ramirez, is fantastic - funny, snide, very talented. She plays three major roles, and manages to come across as three very different people. Fantastic.
My only complaint is a number in act 2 that came across as very hackneyed - do we really need another over the top "I'm gay" number? Other than that, the humor managed to be fresh even though it was heavily drawn from another source.
In general, run, don't walk. This is going to run a long time on Broadway and pick up a lot of awards, despite having no real plot. It's a great time at the theater, and even better if you're familiar with the source material (I can say that as someone who has seen Holy grail, but not in ten years or so, and who has never seen Life of Brian, which is also heavily referenced). the people in our group who could recite every line from the movie likely enjoyed it even more than I did.
Just so this isn't completely devoid of Baby Z content, I've added two new photos to the pregnancy photo album. If you want to see what I really look like at 39 weeks, I'm told this is a pretty good example.
Happy new year, everyone!
Wow, you should be a critic for Braodway. What an honest and great review. Thanks for sharing. Like everyone else.....we can't wait for Baby Z's arrival.
Posted by: Grandma Marlo and Grandpa Bob | January 02, 2005 at 12:41 PM
Welcome to the world of supportive blog comments from Grandma Marlo and Grandpa Bob.
We are very excited to see Spamalot on Valentine's Day! (First NY preview -- we feel so back in the swing of the theaterati!)
Posted by: Kim | January 02, 2005 at 10:34 PM