Review: Spamalot

When I ordered our tickets last month, I wondered if Eric Idle’s stage musical journey into the world of the 1975 movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail would be silly enough for me, a life-long Python fan. There was no question that it would be good. It had, after all, won the Tony for Best Musical. But would it “speak” to me, in the silly way the Holy Grail had?

Today, I got my answer in a matinee of Spamalot at the Canon Theatre here in Toronto. It is silly enough and then silly some more with an extra dash of the ridiculous thrown in just to be sure. We loved it. You can probably imagine that a Python show would not take itself too seriously, but you probably can’t imagine the lengths Spamalot goes to, to prevent any seriousness at all.

The most recited dialogue from The Holy Grail is mostly intact, including Arthur and the Knights’ attempt to get into a French castle and the relentless taunting they endure. (I wave my private parts at your Aunties!) Herbert, the reluctant groom-to-be whose father owns swampland, gets a beefed up role that takes him directly into a political hot potato of modern times. The cast is excellent and it’s just delightful. Some set and costume changes are very clever and almost puzzling. You want to stop and ask yourself, how did they do that? But if you stopped to think, you’d miss the next funny bit or song.

Spamalot was designed with hard core Holy Grail fans in mind but it definitely has an appeal wide enough for the curious and the ordinarily silly to enjoy.