Spamalot
Written by Eric Idle and John Du Prez
Directed by David E. Walters
at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont (map)
thru Oct 6 | tickets: $30-$35 | more info
Check for half-price tickets
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Cheeky, irreverent and unashamedly hilarious
NightBlue Performing Arts Company presents
Spamalot
Review by Lawrence Bommer
Now enjoying a second local debut (after Drury Lane’s Chicago premiere), this cheeky, subversive, and unashamedly hilarious Spamalot! is a labor of laughter. This time its irreverence feels intimate, given this downsized but equally detailed second coming from the NightBlue Performing Arts Company. Medieval mockery never seemed so modern.
What worked nine years ago on Broadway delivers its silly splendor again in David Walters’ devilishly clever revival. In the spirit of Benny Hill, Gilbert & Sullivan, and Forbidden Broadway, the Monty Pythons, whether in film or TV, “cocked a snoot” at assorted sacred cows, turning a government ministry into a school for silly walks and reducing the Spanish Inquisition to a grade school pageant. In Spamalot they target the loftily literary Arthurian legends, as well as xenophobic British history, showbiz clichés about Jews, gays and empty showstoppers, tap-dancing Las Vegas revues, and even the very human quest for meaning that animates King Arthur’s round table and the knights’ search for the Holy Grail.
Encountering gut-busting and anachronistic props and puns, the slap-happy warriors led by John Gurdian’s bumptious king include showbiz-crazy Sir Robin (Creg Sclavi), closeted Sir Lancelot (Andrew Sickel), and valiant twerps and twits Sir Galahad and Sir Bedevere (Edward MacLennan and Billy Dawson). Along the rollicking road the band, trotting about on sound-effect horses, encounter a self-effacing squire (Greg Foster), the diva-like Lady of the Lake (Katie Miller) who demands a bigger part (and is backed up by her cheerleading Laker Girls), a plague-ridden serf who insists he’s “not dead yet” (Ryan Stajmiger), a gay prince locked in a tower (Ryan Naimy), taunting French guards, socialist peasants, the very irritating Knights of Ni, a “Trojan Rabbit” as well as a real killer rodent, and, in a wicked surprise, the Grail itself hidden in plain sight.
So what if a few props misfired on opening night, the singing wasn’t always Broadway-brilliant, and Kelsey Overberg’s pizzazz-packed dances looked awfully crowded on the small Stage 773 stage? (How often is the real thing as good as its hype?) Walters’ eager and hungry staging takes the sometimes sassily sophomoric Spamalot back to Monty Python’s “take no prisoners” spoofery, where every gag, sight or sound, is grist for a very merry mill.
Seldom has humanity’s pursuit of renegade phantoms by vaulting vanity been so perfectly pictured, while its darker currents are ingeniously sugar-coated with such sardonic but feel-good anthems as “Always Look at the Bright Side of Life,” “A Song That Goes Like This,” and “Find Your Grail.” Who needs Merlin?
Rating: ★★★½
Spamalot continues through October 6th at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont (map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays 3pm. Tickets are $30-$35, and are available by phone (773-327-5252) or online through Stage773.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at NightBlueTheater.com. (Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes, includes an intermission)
artists
cast
John Gurdian (King Arthur), Billy Dawson (Sir Bedevere, Mrs. Galahad), Greg Foster (Patsy, French Taunter), Creg Sclavi (Sir Robin, Guard 1), Edward MacLennan (Sir Galahad, Herbert’s Father), Katie Miller (The Lady of the Lake, a.k.a. Guinevere), Ryan Naimy (Prince Herbert, God), Ryan Stajmiger (Historian, Not-Dead-Fred), Jenna Schoppe (Minstrel), Shari Mocheit, Kim Green (ensemble)
behind the scenes
David E. Walters (director, producer, costumes), Paul Packer (stage manager, prop master), Kelsey Overberg (choreographer), Aaron Benham (music director), Max Maxin (set design), Chris Burpee (lighting design), Jenna Moran (sound design)
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