Review Round-up: British Critics Tuck into Spamalot Date: 17 October 2006
Ahead of tonight’s star-studded premiere, the press were let in last night (16 October 2006, previews from 30 September) to pass their judgment on Spamalot, the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical adapted from the quintessentially British film comedy classic, Monty Python’s 1975 hit Monty Python and the Holy Grail (See News, 20 Jan 2006).
Spamalot tells the tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in their quest to find the religious relic – and features a chorus line of dancing divas (with serfs), flatulent Frenchmen, killer rabbits and a legless knight.
Directed by Mike Nichols, Spamalot has a book and lyrics by original Python Eric Idle, who has also co-written the music with John Du Prez. The musical opened in March 2005 at Broadway’s Shubert Theater, where it’s still running.
Many of London’s overnight critics had already seen Spamalot on Broadway and were intrigued to see it “brought home” to the UK. If a few had reservations about the Americanised nature of some elements of the show as juxtaposed with the Pythons’ uniquely British humour – in particular, making the holy grail a blockbuster musical, including a swipe at (Broadway-controlling) Jews – those who praised its “silly” success did so so rapturously that the overall sense is of a new West End hit being born. All noted the inclusion of the signature Python pieces and applauded the performers, particularly Tim Curry and Hannah Waddingham.
Benedict Nightingale in The Times (4 stars) – “Eric Idle has said that he set out to be very funny and very silly when he and the composer John Du Prez ‘lovingly ripped off’ Monty Python and the Holy Grail, transforming a cult movie into a stage musical; and you’d have to be a dead parrot not to agree that he has fulfilled both aims.” Nightingale “replayed the original film last weekend and found it a bit sluggish beside a show which, though slicker and maybe blander, kept him in infantile bliss from the moment Tim Curry’s gloriously plummy, blimpish Arthur trotted onstage with a serf making horse-noises with coconut shells…. London is less narcissistically obsessed with its theatre than New York, and the idea worked better when Arthur’s destination was the place where the musical was first staged: Broadway…. Never mind. It’s hard to resist a show which… remains cheerfully mischievous throughout…. Silly? Very. Funny? You bet. ”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (3 stars) - “This musical – ‘lovingly ripped off from Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ - has been passionately adored in the United States. But, while it passes the time pleasantly enough, it will do nothing to satisfy those who crave the spice of novelty on their night out. Slavishly raiding the original, mock-Arthurian screenplay, Eric Idle's book offers a procession of old favourites…. The audience greets each Pythonesque gag like an old friend…. The only originality lies in the fact that Idle, his fellow-composer John Du Prez and director Mike Nichols are also attempting to send up the conventions of the musical. And here, at least, the show spasmodically hits its target. The best, already legendary number, ‘The Song That Goes Like This’, is a wickedly accurate parody of a generic Lloyd Webber anthem…. Nichols' production mixes the rowdy and the sophisticated…. Tim Curry plays King Arthur with commendably straight face…. Hannah Waddingham is a suitably statuesque Lady of the Lake and there is good back-up from Tom Goodman-Hill as a Sir Lancelot who suddenly turns into a dancing disco-queen…. In short, the show has its moments.”
Paul Taylor in the Independent - “In London, the press night of the mega-hit musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail… has just given me the most deliriously silly and loopily enjoyable evening in a theatre since Dame Edna was last in town. Yes, it leaves you that high and weak with laughter, thanks not just to the Python provenance of the basic material but to the phenomenal speed, wit, cheek and showbiz knowingness of the direction, which is by the great veteran, Mike Nichols. So what kind of musical is Spamalot? Well, it's a hysterical collision between the barking nonsense and bite of Python and the whole crazy shebang of US showbiz…. The good nature, which lets the air into a show that would otherwise feel a bit relentless and one-note, comes from two main aspects. First, there's the endearingly bonkers notion of making the characters in a medieval Grail legend the conscious creatures of an aspiring Broadway/Hollywood musical…. Hannah Waddingham, who is as tall and beautiful as she is awe-inspiring, is part of second reason why the show is good-natured. She and the adorably poached-eyed and sleepily subversive Tim Curry, who plays Arthur, have the rare trick of being side-splitting and touching at the same time.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph - "I suppose there are a few people who won’t enjoy Spamalot. The chronically depressed, the criminally insane and the snootier drama critics may find it hard to raise a smile. The loss is all theirs, however, and I suspect everyone else will have an absolute ball. There has never been a sillier musical than this, or one more calculated to appeal to the British sense of humour. Already a hit on Broadway, there is a genuine sense that the show has come home with its arrival at the Palace. Spamalot… actually proves far more enjoyable than the movie, partly because of the warmth that flows between the audience and the performers…. The gags about Jews perhaps don’t work quite as well as they do in New York, but otherwise the show seems to me to be sharper, funnier and warmer than it did on Broadway…. It’s a wonderful night, and I fart in the general direction of anyone who says otherwise.”
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (3 stars) – “It’s an odd paradox that the peculiar Britishness of the Monty Python comedy show (which ran on television from 1969 to 1974) has underpinned a runaway Broadway smash hit musical while the ‘coming home’, as it were, to London feels like an over-stretched disappointment…. The underlying premise, of course, is that hit musicals are essentially silly, insubstantial pageants…. In a piece that has only the defence of utter silliness to fall back on, the sillier things are the better…. Tim Curry repeats his wonderfully relaxed performance as King Arthur, although I spent most of the evening looking forward to seeing Simon Russell Beale succeed him the New Year. And Hannah Waddingham is magnificent as the Lady in the Lake.”
Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail - “The idea of this Monty Python spoof seems almost as ancient as the medieval legend it tweaks…. This show has plenty to make an adult audience chuckle – and sometimes laugh quite a lot, particularly if they are Python veterans…. Six-foot Miss Waddingham has a mouth like the Channel Tunnel, shoulders that would not disgrace a Wimbledon champ, and a Cheddar Gorge cleavage. She’s a great comic find…. That incurable ham Tim Curry plays Arthur…. The staging is exuberant…. There are crazy, vivid backdrops, dizzying costume changes, some terrible puns (someone talks of ‘a symbol’ so we hear a cymbal clash) and knights with names like Dennis.”
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