Joust
hilarious! `Spamalot' does Python proud
By Terry Byrne
Friday, March 18, 2005 - Updated: 11:33 AM EST
NEW
YORK - The ``Spamalot'' credits acknowledge the show is lovingly ripped
off from the film ``Monty Python and the Holy Grail.'' What they don't
mention is that this deliriously funny new musical gleefully rips
off everything else within reach, too.
``Grail,'' released in 1975, was a heady
mix of outrageous physical comedy and absurd arguments among knights
of the Round Table. Set in A.D. 932, it follows King Arthur as he
recruits knights and launches a quest for the Holy Grail. Although
the old adage is that when plays are turned into films they open up
the scenes and the story, one of ``Spamalot'' director Mike Nichols'
cleverest touches is the way he opens up the film story for the stage
at the same time he sends up every musical theater convention in the
book.
``Spamalot'' comes, of course, with
a built-in audience of Monty Python fans who cheer not just the appearance
of stars Tim Curry (King Arthur), David Hyde Pierce (Sir Robin and
others) and Hank Azaria (who gets all the best parts), but the characters
they know and love from the film, including The Black Knight, the
French Taunter, The Killer Rabbit and the Knights Who Say Ni. What
makes the teamwork of Eric Idle (original Pythoner and ``Spamalot''
book writer and lyricist) and Nichols so inspired is their ability
to highlight the best bits from the film while giving the piece a
truly theatrical twist.
One of the weaknesses of the film (dare
I say it?) was its ending, in which modern-day police pull up and
arrest the murderous knights, leaving everyone else feeling abandoned.
For the stage, that time warp is still there, but it brings us right
into the theater where we are sitting, in an insane breaking of the
fourth wall that gets the audience into the act. Now that's theater.
Director Nichols,
best known for his films (most recently ``Angels in America'' for
HBO and ``Closer''), hasn't directed a musical since 1966, yet he
has a wonderful sense of the rhythm of the show, a brilliant sense
of timing and a clear affection for old-school musical structure.
Idle and composer John Du Prez have provided him with some hilarious
and vaguely familiar musical numbers, including ``The Song That
Goes Like This'' (a spoof of every treacly musical ballad) and ``Find
Your Grail'' (think ``Bring Him Home'' from ``Les Miserables.'')
Nichols
effortlessly whips up all this lunacy into a delicious froth that
includes a trip to a Las Vegas-like Camelot (and works in the film's
song ``Knights of the Round Table''), water nymphs who turn into
cheerleaders for the Lady of the Lake and even a nod to gay disco
and Barry Manilow with a nutty production number called ``His Name
is Lancelot.'' There is also a succession of visual jokes that get
funnier and funnier.
I
do hope Nichols sends a bouquet of roses to Susan Stroman, whose
work on ``The Producers'' was obviously a touchstone Nichols
also has struck gold in his company of Monty Python wannabes who
obviously love what they're doing. Curry's laconic humor is so winning,
all he has to do is smile at the audience to get a laugh. Pierce's
comic timing may have been honed on ``Frazier,'' but here he also
gets a chance to sing out on the show's wildest production number,
``You Won't Succeed On Broadway.'' Azaria nearly steals the show
from his pals as he morphs from Lancelot to the French Taunter,
the Knight of Ni and Tim the Enchanter, for which he not only channels
the original Pythons, but takes it one step further
Not
to be left out, Christopher Sieber is a dashing doofus as Sir Dennis
Galahad, The Black Knight and Prince Herbert's father; and Michael
McGrath, as Arthur's faithful Patsy, is a great foil who gets a
workout with those clip-clopping coconuts.
The
show's real ace is Sara Ramirez as the Lady of the Lake. Although
she's only mentioned in the film, musical theater (according to
Idle) demands a girl, and a wedding. Ramirez steps up to the part
with sexy charm, impressive comic chops and a knockout voice. When
she returns in Act Two to demand more stage time (``The Diva's Lament''),
the entire audience is on her side. She gets her time and becomes
the epitome of every fairy tale princess and Glinda the Good (watch
for it - it's priceless).
``Spamalot''
is an exhilarating evening in the theater. Idle and Nichols' triumph
is in engaging the audience in the shenanigans and sending them
out of the theater whistling ``Always Look on the Bright Side of
Life.''
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Cast members David Hyde Pierce and Tim Curry. (AP photo) |
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