@ Edinburgh Playhouse, until Sat 31 Mar 2015 and
@ King’s Theatre, Glasgow, from Mon 1 Jun until Sat 6 Jun 2015
Part musical pastiche, and part love letter to the Monty Python films, the success of Spamalot is largely dependent on the predilections of its audience. While the production values are high – the stylised set is particularly impressive – the characters are ciphers, and the plot itself of small import, for the journey taken by King Arthur and his Knights to find the Holy Grail serves chiefly as a framework within which the actors scatter lines from the movies like largesse. These are happily lapped up by the Python lovers in the crowd, but are largely a mystery to the uninitiated. Nevertheless, the first Act whizzes by in a blur of physical comedy, fart jokes, and consummate performances from the compact, but talented, ensemble.
While Spamalot is fun if not taken too seriously, the writers (John Du Prez and Python’s own Eric Idle) create their best work when they ignore the source material entirely and focus instead on their irreverent analysis of the anatomy of a musical. The Song That Goes Like This is the first of several interludes poking affectionate fun at the genre, and is both witty and cleverly composed, highlighting too the singing and comedic chops of Sarah Earnshaw, as The Lady of the Lake.
Yet this self-awareness undermines the production in the end, serving as a kind of super-conscious apology for the shortcomings of the show, whilst failing altogether to serve its ostensible plot. Later, these shortcomings are addressed head-on, with a ‘humorous’ take on the financial necessity in theatre of hiring star names, delivered tongue-in-cheek by Joe Pasquale, as King Arthur. Pasquale, while a talented performer, is certainly out-sung by his colleagues – who have not been hired for their names.
The parts, then, are greater than the whole, for the Python love is not served by the music, and the theatre pastiche is a cut above the farce. In Spamalot, two popular yet disparate worlds collide, and if the audience is a die-hard fan of neither, the show is little more than a series of in-jokes that have no ‘face value’ for those coming to it cold.