Stephen Curry leads a relentlessly silly production packed with classic Python lines, Eric Idle as God, a Black Knight who loses all four limbs and a cast that commits completely to the madness.
by Paul Cashmere
Monty Python’s Spamalot is now playing at Melbourne’s Athenaeum Theatre, and if the test of a comedy is how often an audience laughs, this production passes with something approaching ridiculous ease. Stephen Curry leads the cast as King Arthur, while Monty Python co-creator Eric Idle appears on screen as God, helping turn Eric Idle’s stage adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail into a fast-moving celebration of some of comedy’s most enduring lines.
The cleverness of Spamalot is that it knows exactly what the audience has come to hear. Much of the dialogue is lifted from the world created by Monty Python for the 1975 film, with the stage musical adding its own Broadway satire, songs and characters. The result is less a conventional musical than a comic assault that rarely gives the audience time to catch its breath.
The familiar exchanges remain remarkably effective. Arthur’s declaration, “I am your king,” is met with the perfectly logical response, “Well, I didn’t vote for you,” before Dennis the peasant dismantles the entire concept of medieval government with the argument that “strange women lyin’ in ponds distributin’ swords” is no basis for a system of government.
Then there is the French Taunter, whose abuse of the English includes the unforgettable insult about Arthur’s mother being a hamster and his father smelling of elderberries. It is exactly the sort of deliberately childish nonsense that Monty Python perfected.
The Black Knight sequence is another major payoff. Arthur cuts off one arm, then the other, followed by both legs, while his opponent continues insisting that the injuries amount to “just a flesh wound”. In this production, the gag is taken further through the staging, turning the Black Knight into one of the show’s most visually memorable pieces of absurdity.
Curry is particularly well suited to Arthur. He plays the King with enough seriousness to give everyone around him something to bounce off, while allowing the ridiculousness of the situation to accumulate. His comic timing gives the character an exhausted quality that makes the increasingly stupid quest for the Holy Grail even funnier.
Jamie Rolton is equally effective as Patsy, Arthur’s long-suffering servant, while Jaz Flowers brings considerable vocal power and comic timing to the Lady of the Lake. Gareth Isaac finds plenty of laughs as Sir Robin, and Jesse Vasiliadis, Ethan Jones and Noah Skape complete a strong group of knights.
The musical also understands that Python’s humour works because it keeps changing direction. “Knights of the Round Table” turns medieval adventure into theatrical spectacle, “The Song That Goes Like This” sends up the conventions of the grand Broadway love duet, while “Diva’s Lament” allows the Lady of the Lake to complain about being left out of the story.
The biggest audience recognition comes with “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life”, originally written by Idle for 1979’s Monty Python’s Life Of Brian rather than Holy Grail. Its inclusion connects the two films and gives Spamalot an instantly recognisable musical signature.
Idle’s involvement goes considerably further than the writing. His recorded appearance as God is built into the production, allowing the man who created the stage musical to appear alongside the Melbourne cast. It is an unusually direct link between the original Python world and this Australian production.
That connection matters because Spamalot was itself an experiment in taking Python’s anarchic comedy somewhere new. Idle wrote the book and lyrics with music by John Du Prez and Idle, and the Broadway production opened in 2005. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical, with the American Theatre Wing recording 14 nominations for the production.
What makes the Melbourne production work is the commitment of the performers. Nobody appears embarrassed by the silliness. They play the jokes straight, attack the musical numbers and allow the material to become progressively more absurd.
The production uses large-scale digital scenery and lighting to move rapidly between locations, while the choreography keeps the ensemble in constant motion. There is a lot happening, but the central attraction remains the comedy.
For anyone who knows Holy Grail, the pleasure is recognising what is coming and discovering how the stage version twists it. For those who know Life Of Brian, “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” provides another familiar doorway into the Python catalogue.
Spamalot is ultimately a celebration of silliness, performed by a cast willing to live inside the joke completely. With Curry at its centre, Idle looking down from the screen as God and the Black Knight losing virtually everything except his determination to continue fighting, Melbourne has been given a very Python kind of night out.
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