Spamalot!

I've just gotten back from Spamalot and I am so glad I spent the money to go and see it. It was fan-bloody-tastic!!!!!

I haven't laughed so hard in a long time.

I was a bit worried that it wouldn't work so well with different actors instead of the pythons, but it doesn't matter. Sure if it was them it would have been twice as funny but it didn't matter.

They started off with the narrator telling us that this is England at the time of Arthur. Then the music starts and the curtain lifts and it's ... Finland and we get the Fisch Schlapping Song! So stupid.

Then of course we meet Arthur and Patsy as they head off in search of knights to join the round table.

Next it changes to the 'bring out your dead' scene. This time the man claiming he isn't dead gets up and dances and sings until he is whacked over the head! Then we go onto the Mud town with the 'old woman' names Dennis - who actually turns out to be Galahad, once he is purified.

We meet the Lady of the Lake who is much more of a character is this show than in the movie.

Then all of the knights come together at Camelot which turns out to be a lot like Vegas 'What happens in Camelot, stays in Camelot'.

Then God's (John Cleese) feet come down from heaven and tell them to go find the grail. The knights think it's pretty odd that all-knowing God has lost a cup, but decide that the search for the Grail is merely a metaphor and really they are all searching for the Grail on the inside. Awwwwwwwwww

So they go in search of the Grail and come across the ...... French castle and insults ensue. This was seriously funny. They did it so well with the wooden horse that they forgot to climb inside of and the cow that the French catapult over the side of the castle until the English all cry "Run Away, Run Away".

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Intermission

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Then we come back and all of the knights have gotten separated and Arthur is on his own with Patsy. The knights of Ni appear and demand a SHRUBBERY! Arthur is now feeling rather glum, where is he going to find a shrubbery so Patsy decides to cheer him up by singing ............. 'Always look on the bright side of life'. I know it wasn't originally in the movie, but it was so perfect and funny that it didn't matter. As soon as the song started the audience were whistling and singing along. And then of course right at the end of the song a woman walks past with a shrubbery that she is going to throw out so he is happy again.

Then we go onto Brave Sir Robin lost in the woods with his minstrels singing about how he isn't afraid to die and have his head ripped off and his guts torn out....... He comes across the black knight and promptly runs away and then Arthur takes on the Black Knight and removing of arms and legs ensues with much blood and hilarity.

Then the knights of Ni appear again and Arthur is able to hand over the shrubbery and they are very happy until they explain that they are no longer the nights of Ni, they are now the knights of Ecci Ecci......... (can't remember the rest, it gets rather complicated). As soon as the head knight finished saying it he just about burst into laughter. It was great fun watching and set the whole crowd off again. Then the knight of Ecci Ecci... declared that a shrubbery was no longer good enough, instead to get through the forest Arthur would have to put on a West End show!

Arthur was despondent once again. What was West End, how was he supposed to put on a show. Finally Sir Robin stepped in and said that they would never succeed on the West End because they didn't have any ...... Jews!!!!! Then of course we got a song about the only way to succeed in show business was with Jews. The song was hilarious and really stupid.

Then the lady of the lake appeared to complain that it had been far too long since she had been on the stage. She had been sitting out the back and was very unhappy! She did a fantastic song, flowers were thrown to her and she marched off stage happy.

Then we go to Sir Lancelot riding through the 'very expensive woods' when his 'horse' is shot with a message attached to an arrow. The person is promised in marriage and doesn't want to marry and wishes to be rescued. Sir Lancelot finally sees his chance for battle (he's rather bloodthirsty) and heads off to rescue the fair maiden. Of course it turns out not to be a fair maiden but rather a very gay young prince who's father is trying to marry him off to a pretty young woman. Instead he would prefer to sing - which his father keeps interrupting. As soon as Prince Herbert opens his mouth to sing and the band starts up his father storms onto the stage and breaks everything up and tells the conductor off. Threatens that he will come and get him if he keeps playing music. So, Lancelot comes charging in only to discover that the maid is in fact a prince. Then we discover that Lancelot is gay, even though he doesn't want to admit it. So then the stage turns into a night club with lots of flashing lights and techno music and Lancelot's clothes are ripped off to reveal tight pants, a sleeveless shirt and a sparkly silver codpiece. He doesn't want to dance and then finally he decides that he does like to dance.

Then we go back to Arthur and patsy in the forest and Arthur is once again despondent and starts singing a song about how alone he is and that there is no one around him to care for him and shoulder his burden and of course Patsy is looking rather upset, particularly seeing as he is 'pack mule'. Then the lady of the lake comes out and tells him that he's not alone and that she is with him and that Patsy is there. Arthur is still worried, because he doesn't know where to find a Jew and then Patsy says that he is a Jew. Arthur wants to know why he didn't say anything and Patsy said that it wasn't something you liked to say to a heavily armed Christian!

Then finally all the knights come back together to find the grail. They find the cave with the killer rabbit as the clue to finding the grail is hidden in the cave. Of course one knight goes to kill the rabbit and gets his head ripped off and blood is everywhere! Then the holy grenade comes out and they blow the rabbit to pieces. With all the smoke from the explosion someone in the audience sneezes and one of the actors says 'Bless you' and then continues on with his lines, but his comment made the other actors start to laugh, and then he started to laugh, which set the audience off, which was great fun. The actors of course are trying to look like they aren't laughing and try to continue their lines. Anyway the clue is revealed and it is..... 'DONE'. They assume this means that their quest is done and therefore they can all go home. Then they realise it means D1, but can't figure out what that means, so they ask God for help and suddenly this finger comes down from the sky and points into the audience and they all realise that of course this means that the grail is in the audience under seat D1, so they dive into the audience to pull it out. Then they have the grail and decide that they have to reward the person in the audience so they pull the poor guy out of the crowd and onto the stage - he looked rather horrified - and ask him his name and then say he is in the running for most valuable peasant. Then they have the award ceremony and guess who the winner is, the man from the audience. They award him a little trophy and make sure to take a photo of him while on stage surrounded by all the actors using an instant camera and then give him is photo and send him back to his seat. That was great fun because the audience were going nuts.

Then of course it is the end and they have to end the show right so they need to have a wedding, so King Arthur and the Lady of the Lake (Gwennevyre - no idea on the spelling) get married, and so do Lancelot and Prince Herbert. Then we have all the bows and once they're all on stage at the end they start singing 'Always look on the bright side of life again' and get the audience to sing along and whistle along with them. Then they let off 2 large confetti blasts so the whole audience gets covered in confetti.

What was great was that the cast was pretty small and all of the actors played lots of different roles and the sets were pretty cheap looking. It was just like Monty Python.

It was so much bloody fun!!!!

YAY!!!

I couldn't help myself, I had to buy some merchandise while I was there. I bought myself a killer rabbit puppet. It's so cute. When it's mouth is closed it looks so sweet and innocent and then you open the mouth and all these sharp pointy teeth are revealed. It's hilarious.

Anyway, I'm sure you're all bored by now, and I know that I've ruined the whole plot for anyone that wanted to see it. But I still think everyone should see it because it was so much fun.

I'd better go. It's way too late to still be awake. Night.