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"Spamalot" Makes Critics Laugh a Lot
Do you happen to know air speed velocity of unladen sparrow? If so, then you'll probably dig this show.
Monty Python's Spamalot, the new Broadway musical based on the wacky 1975 cult film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, opened Thursday in New York to a packed house, roaring laughter and generally rave reviews.
The $12 million production, starring Tim Curry, Hank Azaria and David Hyde Pierce and directed by Mike Nichols was deemed "resplendently silly" by the New York Times.
"Bloody fantastic. Gorgeously silly. Superlative and better," crowed the New York Post. "Only the very dead could hold back their laughter, and even they would probably rattle a few appreciative bones."
"The show indulges every bit of musical-comedy madness tweaking, twirling and more often that not sending up those clichés so dear to hearts of those who love shows," opined the Associated Press.
"The show slays 'em like Excalibur," offered Newsday.
The musical, the brainchild of Python alum Eric Idle and blessed by the surviving members of the seminal comedy troupe, is an adaptation of the film, which in turn is an extremely loose adaptation of the legend of King Arthur. It follows his coconut-clopping highness and his mostly gallant Britons (minus, of course, the brave Sir Robin) on their silly quest for the famous cup. Along the way they deal with the likes of Tim the Enchanter, a killer rabbit, evil Frenchmen, the quixotic Knights Who Say Ni, the Black Beast of Aaaarrrggghhhh, a documentary film crew and the Bridgekeeper, aka the Old Man from Scene 24.
And fans of the film will be fans of the musical, according to the critics. "Laughs arrive even before the scene gets underway," says the Times, [but] it is possible for theatergoers who are not Python devotees to enjoy themselves."
The show, which features songs by Idle and John Du Prez, mocks the musical idiom, with self-referential bits and a score that pokes fun at the bombastic likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The critics also doled out kudos to the cast.
Curry, who takes the stage as King Arthur, was deemed "the best of the cast at translating classic Python style into a musical-comedy idiom," per New York Times.
The New York Daily News says Hyde Pierce, who takes on Robin, Guard 1 and Brother Maynard, "plays several parts splendidly."
And Azaria, who stars as Sir Lancelot, the French Taunter, Knight of Ni and Tim the Enchanter, "gets all the really fun parts," according to Newsday.
But "the breakout in this boys' club, though, proves to be the show's leading lady, Sara Ramirez, playing both the Lady of the Lake and, in typically self-aware Python fashion, the stage diva playing the Lady," says Newsday.
Monty Python's Spamalot is currently playing at the Shubert Theater in Manhattan with a top ticket price of $101. And not even the Black Knight is keeping fans away. The musical has advanced ticket sales of $18 million and is already sold out through June; Friday ticket sales alone were $1.7 million.
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