Spamalot

Spam... Spam... Spam... Spam... Wonderful SPAM!

Sorry just had to say that.

I like going to the theatre, but sadly I rarely get the chance. Thankfully the shows I have seen I have never been disappointed with, and Spamalot was no exception :-)

A musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail with a few scenes added and removed for continuity. The scenery was excellent, with essentially only one main set piece (Which rotated to allow for different scenes) and a series of interchangeable backdrops, all the scenes were acted out to fantastic effect. Special effects came in the form of some pyrotechnics and a projector to do some lettering and highlighting. One thing that sticks out in my mind is the use of two actors who had a long strip of fabric wrapped around them like a conveyor or scroll, and they span on the spot to "wind" the scenery, this allowed for a scene where they crossed several different continents to be done to very good comic effect.

I'd never have noticed were it not for Naomi mentioning it, but the lead role (King Arthur) was played by Peter Davison who is not a particularly skilled singer, the original was played by Tim Currie who is an accomplished singer, so they re-wrote the script somewhat to remove the parts solos. Why they didn't cast a better singer in the role I do not know (There must be people screaming to land a role like that!).

The play was typical Monty Python humour through and through and had us in stitches throughout, the funniest scene by far was a Sooty and Sweep style "Vicious Rabbit" puppet scene. But my hat goes off to the scene with the black knight, had I not seen it I never would have thought they'd have included it due to the difficulty of being able to hack off the limbs of a suit of armour. To do it they must have had a false left arm, as that was the first to be hacked off. The Right arm was next, and as this was the sword arm, it was occupied by the actors actual limb. Using a bit of slight of hand his real arm was moved inside the armour and the "sleeve" cut off

For the legs it was a little more difficult so the audience was distracted whilst the black knight was "hooked" onto a wall and his legs poked through the wall leaving just the trousers. Which were again hacked off... this in all was a brilliant scene that received a lot of applause from the audience

The best bit however was the "best peasant award", unknown to me at every performance seat D1 has the grail place under it, and in the 2nd to last scene the actors break through the 4th wall and collect it. The person sitting in D1 is then pulled up on stage and awarded the "best peasant award". Suffice to say this seat has been booked up years in advance :-(