SPAMALOT WITH JOE PASQUALE

SPAMALOT WITH JOE PASQUALE

Playhouse Theatre

11.07.13

"Such a generous performer – brilliant to play against. He's spontaneous, and unpredictable, but in a good way!"

That's no less a knight than Sir Lancelot, aka Kit Orton, talking about the inimitable Joe Pasquale, who's enjoying a run as King Arthur in the Monty Python rip-off musical at the Playhouse this month.

And Joe is a happy man, too. "I'd say it's the highlight of my career. Just saying Eric's words – comedy by numbers really – you're stone bonkers guaranteed to get the laughs. We've got people falling about every night. And that's not me, it's not even Bonnie [Langford, a showstoppingly theatrical Lady of the Lake/Guinevere], it's the wonderful script. Believe me, if I could stay, I would …"

But it's a busy life for Pasquale – a stand-up tour, then Ha Ha Holmes, before panto in Wolverhampton. But I wouldn't be surprised to see him back in the Spamalot family. Where everyone seems to be enjoying what is clearly fun, as well as a punishingly demanding two hours. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime job – doesn't feel like work !" Orton again, who joined the show in 2010 and has worked his way up. "It's such a giggle. We've done it thousands of times, but it changes with every audience. People say 'My husband dragged me along, but I loved it, never stopped laughing …'"

So what has Joe Pasquale brought to the Round Table ? Well, there does seem to be a deal more giggling and corpsing [never forced or contrived, Lancelot assures me] and King Arthur is done with an unassuming sense of fun and mild bewilderment, as if he can't quite believe he's found himself in Days of Old. The audience, needless to say, loves every minute. As the excellent Rob Delaney reminds us in what is for my money the best song in the show – You Won't Succeed – it helps to have a star.

And this summer Hugh Bonneville, Barbara Windsor, Larry Lamb, Bradley Walsh, Simon Callow and Christopher Biggins will all be appearing, in video segments, in the role of God, normally done by the show's creator Eric Idle, to raise money for charity. Some lesser mortals have also been treading the Playhouse boards in the rather more modest role of Sir Not Appearing. And, having reviewed the show in June, I was thrilled to join their ranks on July 11 – my experiences here …

SPAMALOT

SPAMALOT

at the Playhouse Theatre

06.06.13

It's a long time since Monty Python was cutting-edge, envelope-pushing entertainment.

Eric Idle's tribute show – "lovingly ripped off" from the television and the films – is a bright and breezy mock-musical, which does its best to please everyone with an anarchic mix of pantomime, pastiche, and slapstick. Shopping opportunities, too, with the La Vache tee-shirt and the Grail Ale top of my list.

So who was in the packed Playhouse ? A prep school outing, in uniform, plus the usual foreign tourists, theatre/meal deals, and the fans, who couldn't wait for the singalong at the end.

Against a brightly coloured set, variously referencing Las Vegas and Les Tres Riches Heures, Christopher Luscombe's energetic, gloriously silly production has verbal sparring – the riff on the coconuts an early example – in-jokes in passing [plumage, suspenders and a bra], two hard-working showgirls and some rather good songs [MD Gareth Weedon]. Not just Always Look On The Bright Side, without of course its crucial irony, but a witty, knowing Star, much changed since the Broadway opening, and excellently delivered by Rob Delaney's Sir Robin, Not Yet Dead, I'm All Alone, with the whole company plus SM and ASM pressed into service in support, and some clever kitsch for the Lady of the Lake, gamely belted out by the unsinkable Bonnie Langford, whose stage presence and sense of fun are a great asset to the company.

Robin Armstrong is a likeable, blokish Arthur King, and Adam Ellis comes into his own in Act Two as Prince Herbert, with much coming-out campery as he finds his true love in Kit Orton's Sir Lancelot. Michael Burgen outstanding as Patsy, the Baldrick/Lucky sidekick to the King, with his coconut shells and his outsize backpack. Plus turns from James Nelson as widowed Mrs Galahad, from "Boris Johnson" and, of course, in full armour, Sir Not Appearing.

Joe Pasquale takes over as Arthur on June 17. It will be interesting to see how his unique performance style suits the part originally created by another shrinking violet, Tim Curry …

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

Playhouse Theatre

23.07.09

La Cage has come a long way from the Boulevard comedy of 1973.

The people's cross-dressed nightclub now boasts a team of Cagelles that could rival the Tiller Girls or the Ballet Boyz, and its numbers have a gloss which Paul Raymond might have envied.

But in this revival the sentimental social comedy quite properly remains at the heart of the show.

Roger Allam is back behind the feathers as a magnificent Zaza, touchingly vulnerable in late middle age, reminiscent of the late LaRue in his priceless routines. Perfect comic timing, and the ability to sell his songs, stagey and simple alike. He's well matched by Philip Quast as Georges, these two memorable Javerts holding the stage and plucking the heartstrings.

Strong support not only from the frighteningly lithe chorus boys, but also from Jason Pennycooke as a pocket-sized Jacob, and Abigail McKern and Iain Mitchell, cyphers as the café patrons, but wonderful as the stage-struck mouse and the angry bigot, who end up dragged into the closing chorus.

Direction by Terry Johnson, choreography by Lynne Page, with Musical Direction by Michael Haslam. The production, originally at the Menier Chocolate Factory, transferred to the West End in October 2008 – booking into 2010, with John Barrowman taking over from Roger Allam in Autumn 2009.

Previously as Albin/Zaza - Douglas Hodge and Graham Norton, seen at the Royal Variety Performance 2008.

and by way of comparison, Denis Quilley at the 1987 Olivier awards