Cast
King Arthur – Joe Pasquale
Patsy – Joe Tracini
Lady of the Lake – Sarah Earnshaw
Sir Robin – Will Hawksworth
Sir Galahad – Richard Meek
Prince Herbert – Richard Kent
Show Date – Monday 18th May 2015
Spamalot is Monty Python’s musical. Well yes but Eric Idle is the one to thank for this. Plenty of Python style jokes with hilarious slapstick moments mixed very well together with singing and dancing. If you don’t laugh nearly all the way through then I don’t think you will laugh at many shows at the theater. I first saw this show back in 2007 on the US Tour in Houston Texas, since then I have listened to some of the songs but I will admit that I forgot how funny the show is on a whole.
King Arthur is searching for Knights to join him and ends up on a quest to find the Holy Grail. All lovingly ripped off from Monty Python and the Holy Grail of course. The knights each have their moments and possible shocks in store for the audience. Sir Lancelot I am looking at you! Plenty of laughs and catchy songs to enjoy, and obviously they have to include always look on the bright side of life which brought a brilliant performance from Joe Tracini.
The show does not have a massive cast and sees the actors take on many different roles, with a very male heavy cast as well. It certainly does stick very closely to how Monty Python was as well with this. I still think it can be enjoyable for none fans, especially if people are theater fans as many of the songs poke fun at all other musicals. In a cute fun way not nasty. Pretty much a few of the songs could make it on Forbidden Broadway easily!
You don’t succeed on Broadway is replaced with a very fitting you don’t succeed in Sunderland, with plenty of references to the North East. I thought this was the best part of the show, with a brilliant singing and dancing performance from Will Hawksworth as Sir Robin. He really put everything into this song and got extra laughs with the references to the local area. The sit down Greggs mention was a particular highlight of mine! Just brilliant and well done to everyone involved in the show for this, Ant and Dec can be seen as well. Does make you wonder what is put together for the different places?
Joe Pasquale taking on the lead role of King Arthur, now this was something I wasn’t quite sure about. He seemed to do his best at times to make the rest of the cast lose it and burst out laughing. Even though they were resisting, quite a bit of ad-lib was in the show. I am not really sure how often this was planned but Joe was certainly responding to the audience and other cast members seemed a little caught of guard, which made the audience laugh even more. I thought he was a little weak with some of the songs but totally nailed ‘I’m All Alone’ which I was really pleased about as he improved as the show went on.
Massive well done to the cast for putting on such a hilarious show from start to finish, putting in so much energy in many different roles, see if you can spot the actors changing parts! Certainly very easy to watch and will not fail to make you smile and laugh. Pasquale and Tracini have a great chemistry and work so well together!
Eric Idle the absolute genius he is put this show together and he deserves so much credit for how successful it has been over the years now. I was very pleased that he was God at our venue, shouldn’t even be a vote in my opinion! He deserves to have that honor at each and every Spamalot show.
Don’t forget to have a little sing a long at the end to ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ – what better way to start a week off? Well it certainly should be a song you listen to on a Monday. It really is such a brilliant song, I will never tire of hearing it. I mean come on coconuts being banged together and men pretending to ride horses, what is not to like about that?
