They like to push the pram a lot
Another
stage musical based on a popular film and although Spamlot
has new music composed for it is a double pastiche. Firstly it
sends up existing musical styles, the pseudo-operettas Andrew
Lloyd Webber with their strategic key shifts and swelling orchestral
chords, the Las Vegas nightclub act and the flimsy variety show
built around a Diva. In the second place it is of course a parody
of the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It
begins, however as a parody of that film. Having no female lead
and very few female roles it is difficult to make a straightforward
adaptation to the musical stage. The solution was to take a female
that didn't appear in the film at all, the Lady of the Lake (Lucinda
Shaw), and work her into the plot. The resulting character is
a selfish Diva who spends as much time complaining about her minimal
allocation of songs as she does actually playing the Arthurian
nymph.
The stage version is careful to retain the best
of the films jokes and characters and, because one of the original
creators, Eric Idle, is the writer, the Pythonesque iconic style
is maintained. Even before the show starts Sousa marches are played
in the auditorium to warm the audience up for a night of nostalgia.
Terry Gilliam's iconic cartoons (recreated by Elaine J. McCarthy)
scurry about the front cloth as a professor lectures about England
in 932AD before the curtain goes up on a fish slapping dance in
picturesque Finland. I said 'England' snaps he professor, the
confused Fins take the set away and onto the darkened stage comes
the chanting and head slapping monks followed by the familiar
coconut shell clip-clop of Arthur (Bille Brown) and his faithful
lackey Patsy (Derek Metzgner).
In adapting the film Idle has condensed the story
and events and invented new ones. This way the Marxist mud packer
can be retained as well as introduce the first of the grail knights
Galahad (Ben Lewis) who promptly shares with the Lady of the Lake
the first and recurring recurring pastiche number ('The Song that
Goes like This'). While sticking to the grail quest storyline
the narrative certainly side tracks Thomas Mallory but even the
Monty Python film scenario is eventually ditched midway through
act two. Now resolutely a Broadway-cum-Vegas show the familiar
film sketches return only intermittently and often drastically
altered. The Scots wizard Tim (Stephen Hall) and the carnivorous
rabbit scene is intact but the Knights who say 'ni'(lead by Stephen
Hall, he must be the best at accents!)instead of demanding a second
shrubbery request that Arthur put on a Broadway show. The episode
of Lancelot's rescue of the effeminate Prince Harold is becomes
Lancelot's outing as gay complete with a Boy from Oz Rio number.
This would have to be a phase Lancelot is going through, otherwise
why would he fall in love and have the disastrous affair with
Arthur's wife Guinevere, but that's another musical (Camelot)
anyway.
The Broadway musical subplot is a questionable excuse
for the next round of show parodies. Lancelot and Harold's Boy
from Oz routine works. It is preceded by funny dialogue where
Lancelot's pent up rage is explained as the result of his repressed
sexuality and he clinches the scene as he holds Harold and reassures
him "In a thousand years this will still be controversial".
Being reproduced from the American original Spamalot brings with
it one scene, however, that simply does not transplant well. The
song 'You Won't Succeed on Broadway' which turns into one of the
biggest production numbers in act two but which jokes about Jews
being essential to any successful Broadway show, does not work
outside of New York.
The knights are all very funny in their various
doubled and tripled roles. With his Shakespearean credentials
Brown is no stranger to the medieval idiom but as the lead in
a popular musical, there are too many times, especially in the
songs he shares with Patsy, that look more like King Lear and
the Fool. Brown picks up every nuance that might lurk in the dialogue
but often he he looks like he is waiting for the War of the Roses
to break out. The Arthur and Patsy songs in act two are however
where the musical really takes wings. Up until then Patsy has
been a visual joke but suddenly he is given a heart a character
and one of the most famous Python songs ever 'Always Look on the
Bright Side of Life'. In it the cheery little peasant sings a
chin up and smile song to the fatalistic Arthur. Backed by soft
shoe shuffling chorus of Knights, the number hits pay dirt. Metzger
and Brown strike gold again with the same formula, this time not
derived from the film and with original music ('I'm all Alone')
they connect, communicate with each other and the audience and
it's delightful!
Lucina Shaw is impressive and understands the different
musical styles the Lady of the Lake needs to emulate. Again with
the direct transplanting of the production, she falls short of
capturing the explosive Diva histrionics of her American and London
counterparts. Rather than making a few changes in the lyrics for
local references performers could be encouraged to find their
own way in a song. Some scenes, like the aforementioned 'You Won't
Succeed' could be revised too in consideration of performers and
audiences often far removed from the original.
In spite of any reservations Spamlot was
still entertaining. The excursions into Broadway parody are diverting,
the more original scenes even better.
Michael Magnusson
To read more of Michael Mangusson's theatre reviews,
check out his blog at
On Stage (and walls) Melbourne.
