{"id":97950,"date":"2023-07-20T14:43:40","date_gmt":"2023-07-20T18:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=97950"},"modified":"2023-07-20T14:43:40","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T18:43:40","slug":"scrutiny-stratfords-spamalot-rejoices-in-the-ridiculous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2023\/07\/20\/scrutiny-stratfords-spamalot-rejoices-in-the-ridiculous\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Stratford\u2019s Spamalot Rejoices In The Ridiculous"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jonathan
Jonathan Goad (centre) as King Arthur with (from left) Anthony MacPherson, Jason Sermonia, McKinley Knucle and Devon Michael Brown in Monty Python’s Spamalot, Stratford Festival 2023 (Photo: David Hou)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stratford Festival 2023\/Monty Python\u2019s Spamalot, book and lyrics by Eric Idle, music by Eric Idle and John Du Prez, directed by Lezlie Wade, Avon Theatre, Apr. 19 to Oct. 28. Tickets here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Sometimes you just need a good laugh, and that is just what Monty Python\u2019s Spamalot delivers. It is a show that knows that it is an exercise in the ridiculous, and rejoices in that fact. What a tonic for our times!<\/p>\n

The musical is a \u201crip off\u201d (their words, not mine) of the 1975 movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which in turn is a rip off of the King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table legends. The show debuted in 2005 (directed by the late, great Mike Nichols), winning a best musical Tony, and it has never looked back. Spamalot even had a commemorative United Kingdom stamp in 2011.<\/p>\n

The plot of Spamalot, such as it is, follows King Arthur (Jonathan Goad) and his page Patsy (Eddie Glen) as they try to recruit knights for their round table. They do manage to come up with four \u2014 the singing and dancing Sir Robin (Trevor Patt), the violent but handsome Sir Lancelot (Aaron Krohn), the former anti-monarchist Sir Dennis Galahad (Liam Tobin), and the constantly flatulent Sir Bedevere (Aidan DeSalaiz).<\/p>\n

\"Members
Members of the company in Monty Python’s Spamalot, Stratford Festival 2023 (Photo: David Hou)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is also their muse of sorts, the Lady of the Lake (Jennifer Rider-Shaw), who sets them off on their quest for the Holy Grail, which later turns into having to create a Broadway musical. Along the way they encounter all manner of creatures, human or otherwise. In fact, other than Goad and Rider-Shaw, the talented cast plays a multitude of roles.<\/p>\n

There are some particularly delicious moments in Spamalot. For example, the hilarious song You Won\u2019t Succeed On Broadway, outlines that the key to success is having Jews. Or, after being a fixture in the first act, the Lady of the Lake virtually disappears in the second act, and when she finally reappears, she sings the very funny The Diva\u2019s Lament (What Ever Happened To My Part?) And then there is Lancelot\u2019s wild disco gay outing His Name Is Lancelot, and at this point we should mention Lancelot\u2019s hapless love interest, Prince Herbert (Josh Doig).<\/p>\n

And lest we forget, Camelot itself is a Las Vegas clone equipped with the six Laker Girls chorus line. The title of the musical actually comes from a line in the song The Knights Of The Round Table \u2014 We eat ham and jam and Spam a lot.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Liam
Liam Tobin (left) as Sir Dennis Galahad and Jennifer Rider-Shaw as Lady of the Lake with members of the company in Monty Python’s Spamalot, Stratford Festival 2023 (Photo: David Hou)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The reason that I\u2019ve always liked Monty Python is because the original six creators (John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones \u2014 geniuses all) were clever. No matter how crazy, how outrageous, how scatological the Monty Python skits\/movies were, there was intellect behind them. The group\u2019s satiric take on all things held near and dear was relentless, and they were never afraid to veer into scenes of questionable taste.<\/p>\n

The thing about satire and farce is that you have to play it for real \u2014 as if your very life depended on it, and Goad and Glen, who are at the heart of the matter, understand that. The rest of the cast is right behind them in energy and commitment, and director Lezlie Wade has set a furious pace that never lets up.<\/p>\n

Everything works \u2014 Laura Burton\u2019s music direction, Jesse Robb\u2019s choreography, David Boechler\u2019s costume and set design, Ren\u00e9e Brode\u2019s lighting, and Sean Nieuwenhuis\u2019s projections. The score itself provides an infinite variety of catchy tunes and laugh-out-loud lyrics.<\/p>\n

Yes, Spamalot is silly. Yes, it is irreverent. Yes, it is inane. But the moment you see that line of chanting monks hitting themselves in the head with their prayer books, you know you are in for a treat.<\/p>\n

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Sometimes you just need a good laugh, and that is just what Monty Python\u2019s Spamalot delivers – a show that knows that it is an exercise in the ridiculous.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":97951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40430,4780,3693,52,59],"tags":[40705,39739],"yst_prominent_words":[21268],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/07\/Spamalot-REVIEW.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-ptQ","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97950"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97958,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97950\/revisions\/97958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97950"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=97950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}