Reviewed by Karen Schwartzkopf
Because it’s incredibly, shamelessly, unabashedly fun! It’s not Les Mis or Lincoln – or any other work of performance art fraught with high-stakes emotion and intensity. It’s a heaping helping of Vaudeville for the New Year right in downtown Richmond!
Because it includes such memorable music numbers… as the Fisch Slapping Song, I Am Not Dead Yet, and The Song That Goes Like This. But no worries – it’s not one of those musicals where everything is sung! It even has a bit of audience interaction, but only the good kind.
Because it has a moral – kind of. Find Your Grail inspires us… “life is really up to you, you must choose what to pursue, set your mind on what to find. and there’s nothin’ you can’t do.” Always Look on the Bright Side of Life encourages us. You Won’t Succeed on Broadway and His Name Is Lancelot make us laugh — out loud and really hard.
Because you’re a Monty Python nut! I’m really not sure if this was a good idea, but we just watched the Holy Grail again a few weeks ago. So every single joke from this ridiculously raucous movie was in my memory bank. But even if you can readily recall every scene from the classic comedy, the punch provided by the musical numbers – plus the addition of one new character – makes Spamalot a completely different knockout. That, and it doesn’t even come close to following the script. If it did, it would have been too long. It was the perfect length at about two hours including an intermission.
Because you’re not big on Monty Python! I’m playing the F-U-N card again! Even if you’ve never seen anything Python, these people are having so much fun onstage that you just can’t help but enjoy the whole darn thing, start to finish. There is fish slapping, tap dancing, and soldier taunting. There are killer bunnies, flying cows, plus, scantily clad women and men. There’s silliness for everyone! You owe it to yourself (and perhaps the teenager at your house who’s been driving you crazy?) to get yourself a piece of Spamalot before it’s gone!
Catch Monty Python’s Spamalot January 12 and 13 at CenterStage in Richmond. Visit www.broadwayinrichmond.com for tickets.
