Spamalot—a comic, irreverent look at King Arthur, the “Camelot” era, and life in general—dropped by for a visit at Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace December 1—6.
Opening media night (the middle of only six shows) attracted avid Monty Python fans of all ages. Cleveland, the first city on the latest national tour of the classic satire (Broadway debut in 2005, has seen it twice before, but that didn’t seem to matter. Everyone still laughed. The original Broadway production was nominated for fourteen Tony Awards and won three, including Best Musical.
A good joke is a good joke and Spamalot with book and lyrics by Eric Idle and music by John Du Prez and Idle enjoys an abundance. It might help to see the 1974 film it’s based on before you go (Monty Python and the Holy Grail). Last night’s dialogue flew by so fast and furious some funny got lost.
But the show’s over-the-top bits are impossible to miss. Of course, in Spamalot nothing is taken seriously, especially not death. In an opening scene, plague victims rise from the body-collecting wagon. One vigorous one (Steven Telsey) sang loudly “I Am Not Dead Yet” as workers kept trying to pile him on the wagon.
The indefatigable Telsey shone again in another memorable scene that involved the fluffy-white “Killer Rabbit” who had to be destroyed by the “Holy Hand Grenade.” Fur blown off, jock-strap clad Telsey gave it his all in a comic race offstage. Check YouTube for the original rabbit scene.
All good vaudeville-style laughs.
The cast also featured Amanda Robles as the Lady of the Lake. Her beautiful voice actually helped immensely making this “musical” a real musical, as opposed to a satire with various snappy snarky ditties along the way—not that there’s anything wrong with that, but beauty is always welcome too.
All songs were satirical, of course. What else could “The Song That Goes Like This,” “Find Your Grail,” or “You Won’t Succeed on Broadway (If You Don’t Have Any Jews)” be? Some lyrics played on inside jokes, but most were pretty obvious. (No spoilers here.)
Baldwin Wallace graduate Ellis C Dawson III had a delightfully funny bit as Dennis’s Mother (she had opinions). Other actors included Major Attaway as the uber-serious King Arthur (one of the few cast members with a single role), Chris Collins-Pisano as the dashing, hair-tossing Sir Lancelot, and Leo Roberts as gallant Sir Galahad and (even better fun) as the ill-fated Black Knight.
Sean Bell, Blake Segal, Lindsay Lee Alhady, Delaney Benson, Jack Brewer, Connor Coughlin, L’ogan J’ones, Graham Keen, Claire Kennard, Ben Lanham, Nathaniel Mahone, Maddie Mossner, Emilie Renier, Mark Tran Russ, and Meridien Terrell assumed multiple roles and added to the (sometimes macabre) merriment.
Additional facts: The creative team includes scenic and projection design by Paul Tate dePoo III, along with costume design by Jen Caprio, lighting design by Cory Pattak, sound design by Kai Harada and Haley Parcher, wig design by Tom Watson, and music supervision by John Bell. Jonathan Gorst conducted a small pit orchestra from the keyboard.
Bottom Line: In Spamalot funny outweighs gruesome every time. At closing, the audience (me too) joined in with enthusiasm as we sang “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” Why not? Comic irony seems fitting some days.