March 27, 2011
I Sing From The Diaphragm A Lot.
Spamalot is a strange show.
Now, don’t get me wrong. The show was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed going. The little touches, like the fake program before the program and the audience participation elements were hilarious, and really smart. Most of the jokes were pure Python. The fourth wall was constantly broken, much like in the movie it was based on. If you have a chance to see it and don’t hate Musical Theater on principal, you will probably enjoy yourself if you go.
However, I just had to wonder who the show was targeted towards.
Spamalot was, by far, at its best when it was deviating from the original movie. My favorite song remains You Can’t Succeed On Broadway because it is completely unexpected, completely hilarious, and involves such ridiculously wonderful wordplay as the line “there’s a very small percentile who enjoys a dancing gentile.” It’s fresh, it’s awesome, and all the added parts were a joy to see.
However, between them, you had all the classic bits from Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail. You had the swallow conversation. You had the French taunting scene exactly as it was before. You had the conversation telling the guards how to guard the prince. These were repeated at the audience by actors who were doing a great job but, let’s face it, aren’t the Pythons and never will be.
These bits are still hilarious, of course, because they were brilliant when they were written. However, the reason you would make a musical based on The Quest for the Holy Grail is that you would get fans of the movie in there. These fans know these bits by heart, and can quote them verbatim at a moment’s notice. I enjoyed hearing them again, but when I am then presented with something new and hilarious, I wondered why they didn’t just go all out and make the whole show something new with that Python sense of humor. Would some people feel insulted by this? I guess so. I guess it makes sense that someone would have went to see this musical instead of popping their DVD into the player at home. But man, it’s obviously it’s own thing. It has to be to even work as a musical. I would have rather had a complete overall with the same general plot and some occasional refbacks.
Then again, I suppose when you do something like that you end up with something like Spider-man: Turn Off The Dark. But I guess I have a bit more faith in someone nailing something like Monty Python, because there’d be way more respect out there for what they do and you’d have someone writing it who gave a shit.
That’s really what struck me about the show. It almost seemed strange. But it was a fun evening, I must admit. Totally worth my time. I enjoyed myself.