Spamalot

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Monty Python's Spamalot is a musical based on the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). Eric Idle, a member of the Monty Python team, wrote the musical's book and lyrics, and collaborated with John Du Prez on the music. It was directed by Mike Nichols, and won the Tony Award for Best Musical of the 2004-2005 season.

Contents

1 Cast 2 Premiere 3 Reception 4 Awards 5 Origin of the title 6 Songs 6.1 Act I 6.2 Act III. No... Act II 7 External links

Cast

Spamalot's plot follows King Arthur (Tim Curry) as he journeys to find the Holy Grail. Arthur, travelling with his servant Patsy (Michael McGrath), recruits several knights to accompany him on his quest, including David Hyde Pierce as Sir Robin, Hank Azaria as Sir Lancelot and Christopher Sieber as Sir Galahad. Along the way, they meet the Lady of the Lake (Sara Ramirez, in a role significantly expanded for the show) and a host of other odd characters, including Prince Herbert (Christian Borle), The French Taunter (Hank Azaria again), Tim the Enchanter (Azaria again), the Black Knight and the Knight of Ni. Curry, Pierce, Azaria, Sieber, and McGrath play most of these smaller secondary roles. Over it all comes the recorded voice of God (John Cleese); he is the only actor from the film to also appear in the production.

Azaria's roles were taken over by Alan Tudyk starting June 7, 2005; Azaria is scheduled to return to the cast on November 29, 2005, after his work on a new season of Huff is completed.

Premiere

Previews of the show began in Chicago's Shubert Theatre on December 21, 2004; the show officially opened there on January 9, 2005. It previewed on Broadway, also at the Shubert Theatre, beginning February 14, 2005, and, after some changes, officially opened on March 17, 2005.

Amongst the changes, a musical version of the film's witch-hunting scene was eliminated when it moved to Broadway, as was a sequence featuring a dancing cow.

Reception

The original production has been both a financial and critical success. Variety reported advanced tickets sales of $18 million, with ticket prices ranging from $36 to $101.

Monty Python fans appreciate its many references to the film and other material in the Python canon, including a line from The Lumberjack Song, a nod to the Ministry of Silly Walks routine, and a rendition of the song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from the film Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979).

Broadway musical fans appreciate its visual and auditory references to other musicals and musical theatre in general, such as The Song that Goes Like This (a spoof of Andrew Lloyd Webber productions), the knights doing a dance reminiscent of Fiddler on the Roof, Azaria's mimicking of Peter Allen in His Name Is Lancelot, and a line pulled from Another Hundred People from Sondheim's Company by the "damsel" Herbert.

Awards

The original Broadway production received fourteen Tony Award nominations, more than any other show in the 2004-2005 season. It won three of them:

• Best Musical
• Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (Sara Ramirez)
• Best Direction of a Musical (Mike Nichols)

The production's eleven other nominations were:

• Best Book of a Musical (Eric Idle)
• Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre (John Du Prez and Eric Idle (Music); Eric Idle (Lyrics))
• Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Hank Azaria)
• Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (Tim Curry)
• Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Michael McGrath)
• Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (Christopher Sieber)
• Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Tim Hatley)
• Best Costume Design of a Musical (Tim Hatley)
• Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Hugh Vanstone)
• Best Choreography (Casey Nicholaw, in his Broadway debut)
• Best Orchestrations (Larry Hochman)

Origin of the title

Idle explained the title in a February 2004 press release about the musical:

I like the title SPAMALOT a lot. We tested it with audiences on my recent US tour and they liked it as much as I did, which is gratifying. After all, they are the ones who will be paying Broadway prices to see the show. It comes from a line in the movie which goes: ‘I eat jam, and ham and Spam a lot.’

Songs

External links

• Official site (http://www.montypythonsspamalot.com/)
• Monty Python's Spamalot (http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?id=384262) at the Internet Broadway Database
• Listing (http://www.playbill.com/events/event_detail/5263.html) and announcement of Tony nominations (http://www.playbill.com/news/article/92856.html) from Playbill
• February 2004 Press release about its Chicaco premiere (http://www.dailyllama.com/news/2004/llama232.html), from a Monty Python fan's website
• A Quest Beyond The Grail (http://theater2.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9C00E5DC103CF93BA25750C0A9639C8B63), a review of Spamalot from the New York Times (registration required)
• MSNBC/Newsweek interview with Idle and Nichols (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6999424/site/newsweek/) explaining elimination of some pre-Broadway scenes

Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) Spamalot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamalot) version history (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spamalot&action=history) GNU Free Documentation Lizenz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License) CC-by-sa (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/)

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