SPAMALOT

SPAMALOT
A Made in Colchester Production at the Mercury Theatre Colchester 

28.04.2017
for The Reviews Hub



Is this what a definitive Spamalot would look like ?  This perennially popular show, originally a Python spin-off, has found success on Broadway and in the West End, not to mention on the am-dram scene, as this very professional company cheekily remind us.
Over the years, from celluloid to stage, it has acquired many traditional trappings. Most of them – the fish-slapping and the bible-bashing – are honoured here, but Daniel Buckroyd's production, at once irreverent and respectful, manages a good few laugh-aloud surprises on the way to Camelot.
Where the West End productions – and associated tours – have tended to make a virtue of necessity, celebrating the shoe-string, the Made in Colchester version is glitzier, meatier and much closer to a proper musical.
Or a panto, which it often emulates. A link strengthened by the inclusion in the cast of festive favourite Dale Superville as Patsy, King Arthur's side-kick, Baldrick or Sancho Panza.
His expressive features and his skill as a mime are employed to excellent effect; he's one of a very accomplished company, who enter into the spirit of Spamalot with infectious glee, never self-indulgent, playing the absurdities for all they're worth. Patsy and Arthur apart, they all play many roles, not least the two indefatigable Laker girls [Gleanne Purcell-Brown and Sally Frith] – on the plague cart one minute, in the French army the next, fan dancers and Knights of Ni. Notable turns too from Simon Shorten as Sir Lancelot, the Frenchman, and Tim the Enchanter, making a hilariously apologetic big entrance, John Brannoch as Sir Bors and many more, Matthew Pennington as a priceless Prince Herbert and a Starkeyesque Historian, Norton James as Sir Galahad and Herbert's gruff father, Daniel Cane as a gloriously gawky, moustachioed Sir Robin, and Marc Akinfolarin as a differently whiskered Mrs Galahad and Sir Bedevere.
Bob Harms plays a straight bat as Arthur King, and is all the funnier for it; his Lady of the Lake is Avenue Q survivor Sarah Harlington, giving a superb vocal performance and lighting up the stage with her star personality.
The staging and the choreography [Ashley Nottingham] are inventive and constantly diverting: the foot of God, the Spam can tap dance, the brollies for Bright Side, the actors stepping out of character for All Alone, the spinning nun, Guinevere appearing through the mist in a little canoe with a big chandelier. It's Stars not Jews this time, and there are fresh references to Harry Potter, Trump and Gandalf, as well as local name-checks for TOWIE and Darren Day. 
There's an orchestra pit for Carlton Edwards' band, and the setting is picture-book pantomime, with a lovely little round castle, moving about like a chess piece. There's even a sing-along finale, though the enthusiastic audience scarcely needed the words flown in … a fine end to a sharp, smart, scintillating production, guaranteed to help everyone to look on the bright side.

production photograph: Robert Day

SPAMALOT

SPAMALOT
WAOS at the Public Hall Witham

24.10.2016

A sprightly Spamalot from WAOS, with a great chorus and some very amusing animations.

So alongside the colourful live action, there's a crashing chandelier for the pastiche number, useful glosses for the Chosen People song, a Wikipedia entry for The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, a wheel of fortune for Camelot, and much more. The back-drops, too, are digital.

No shortage of proper Pythonesque performances either. Amongst the knights in woolly tights, Kris Tyler's bold Sir Lancelot and Michael Mundell-Poole's spineless Sir Robin – both sounding more Essex Yeomanry than upper crust - and Phillip Spurgeon's Melchett-moustached Sir Bedevere. Craig Tyler – a convincingly radical Dennis – is the dashing Sir Galahad.

His old mum is played, a la Mother Riley, by Edward Groombridge, who's also a French taunter and a priceless Prince Herbert [another hundred people just contracted the plague...]. This kind of imaginative doubling is crucial to this show: Nik Graham is the other taunter, Tim, and the Knight of Ni, Harry Tunningley an irrepressible Not Dead Fred and Lancelot's trusty Concorde. Even Richard Cowen, an amusingly Starkey-ish Historian, is the tedious Brother Maynard in Act Two.

Camelot's first couple are Constance Lawton's diva Lady of the Lake, and David Slater's impressively sung Arthur – a genial, formidable presence. His hang-dog Patsy, a brolly in his knapsack, is Trevor Marks.

Similar umbrellas for the big production number, with tap-dancing playing cards. The chorus is brilliantly used, from the campest copacabana for the out-of-the-closet Lancelot to the athletic cheerleaders. Good to see Marcel Marceau with the onion seller amongst the French People.

The audience on opening night were enthusiastically appreciative – whistling, singing along and laughing immoderately at the excellent guard panto routine, the snippet of vintage Python, the Brexit joke.

An impressive production of a cult classic, directed by Nikki Mundell-Poole, assisted by Gemma Gray, with Geoff Osborne in charge of the music. A good omen for another off-the-wall show next spring – Bob Carlton's Return to the Forbidden Planet, Shakespeare's forgotten rock'n'roll masterpiece.

production photograph: Matilda Bourne

SPAMALOT

SPAMALOT

Leigh Operatic and Dramatic Society at the Palace Theatre Westcliff

20.10.16

for Sardines

A very British blend of Python and panto, it's curious to think that it was born on Broadway.

The show certainly seems very much at home in the lovely old Palace Theatre; good to see one of the stage boxes used briefly.

LODS, directed by Sallie Warrington, give it their all, playing up the silliness, the high camp and the parody in a gloriously enjoyable couple of hours of escapist laughter.

It helps to have a company of consummate musical theatre performers, of course.

The excellent programme lists thirty named characters, so please forgive only a passing mention for Nathan Gray's Nun, Bradley Gull's Monk and Mick Felgate's Sir Not Appearing. Surely some mistake – he sneaks on for at least one other cheeky cameo.

Intellectual high point of the show is Anthony Bristoe's bow-tied historian right at the start; he also gets to play Brother Maynard and a lovely Mrs Galahad, mother to Stuart Woolner's superb knight, “dashingly handsome” with his Cavalier curls. A somewhat less convincing wig for Peter Brown's Sir Robin, clutching his rubber chicken; a great comedy performance, with a chance to relive his Man in Chair triumph for the Broadway number. The fleeting scenery gag is a particular delight.

His unlikely pair is Lewis Sheldrake's Sir Lancelot, transformed for the finale, outed in a disco number, ready for his “still controversial” wedding to David Shipman's Prince Herbert.

Paul Ward makes a perfect Patsy, the Baldricky side-kick to the King of the Britons. His coconuts carefully placed, always in the moment, especially in the Act Two All Alone number.

“Overacting like hell” as the Camelot couple, Neil Lands' flamboyant Arthur King – I never saw Simon Russell Beale in the role, but I imagine it was something after this style – and Helen Sharpe's unforgettable Lady of the Lake, wringing every last drop of gold top out of her big numbers: the Grail Song, the meta-theatrical front-cloth lament and of course The Song That Goes Like This.

The music – and the essential slapstick sound effects – are excellently done; the MD is Rachael Plunkett, with Clare Penfold waving the stick in the Palace pit. Amateur productions have the edge in the chorus numbers, fielding a stage-full of song-and-dance people: the lovely, hard-working Laker Girls, plus assorted peasants, nobles and Knights of Ni.

The scenery, and the shrubbery, are [deliberately?] uninspired – the code set in stone, for instance – and I find the camel gag works best with a gap, and the E at the end. But the Wooden Rabbit is impressive, and the Black Knight the best I've seen. And the show has so many clever, delightful touches: the entry of the Knights stage left, Fantine amongst the French extras, the slapping of the fish echoed by the head-banging Friars ...

production photograph: Gareth Poxon

SPAMALOT

SPAMALOT

Springers at the Civic Theatre

14.06.16


For a long time I avoided this self-confessed Python rip-off. Flattery lured me to the Playhouse in the end, where I had a very enjoyable time …
And great fun at the Civic, too: a bigger stage, a much bigger company, enthusiastically embracing the shamelessly bold style this unique show demands.
The audience may well come along with expectations, from the Python Grail film, or from seeing one of the many incarnations of this 2005 stage version. On opening night they went wild for the shrubbery, and lustily whistled along to the big number from Peter Spilling's put-upon horse's arse Patsy.
It was great to see a full chorus: the showgirls, in a succession of gorgeous frocks, were variously cheerleaders, minstrels, corps de ballet and much more. The chorus boys had their moments too, climaxing in the copacabana campery in Prince Herbert's chamber.
Despite some hitches, most of which we could forgive in the spirit of silliness, there were many effective bits of staging: the flag waving, the light sabre brollies, the stilts for Amy Serin's first Knight of Ni. Some perfect pastiche, too, notably The Song That Goes Like This, deliciously done by Ian Pavelin's excellent Galahad and his elegant Lady of the Lake, Olivia Pearson.
Many fine performances from the largest roles [Colin Shoard's Arthur King] to the smallest [a balletic friar, a Marceau mime]. It does help if there's a shared sense of fun, guilty pleasures being taken on both sides of the fourth wall. Certainly the case for Jay Fargeot's Lancelot, Bradley Cole's Broadway-obsessed Brave Sir Robin, and Justin Clarke's two silly voices as Tim the Enchanter and the rude Froggie sentinel. Kieran Young, who was also one of the roster of nine choreographers, got to play both Not Dead Fred and Prince Herbert, sporting the fruitiest Carmen Miranda ever.

Spamalot was directed for Springers by Barry Miles, with the MD Ian Myers in charge of a big pit band – the oompah Not Yet Dead one of many merry musical moments.

production photograph: Aaron Crowe

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 …