Monty Python's Spamalot

I once read a review, from one of my fellow Noda Reps, which described Monty Python’s Spamalot as marmite – you either hate it or you love it.  I have to say I am definitely in the latter category and, having directed it myself last year, not only is it close to me heart but, I discovered, I still know the script off-by-heart. 

As usual, for a CUDOS production, the set designers have made the most out of Crewkerne’s small stage, even managing to allow the set to spill off the stage and fill the sides.  It was here that we saw the two towers for “the swallow scene”.  The towers and the castle, at the back of the stage, were well built.  The design really fitted the production well and by painting the towers minimally, they had a cartoonish quality. 

The lighting was good especially the glitter ball but unfortunately there were some issues with sound, either not being able to hear well or crackly mics.  This has happened in CUDOS’s production before and it seems that the quality of the shows now outweighs the quality of the sound, I have mentioned before that if CUDOS are going to continue to improve the quality of their shows then maybe it would be wise to upgrade or tweak the sound equipment.

The costumes were good and mostly mirrored the costumes from the film that the show was based on (Monty Python and The Holy Grail), particularly impressive was Lancelot’s undergarments!  However, I didn’t quite understand why Bedevere was wearing the same costume as Lancelot at the beginning of the show and the same costume again, when the same actor was also playing Concorde.  To make things even more confusing, when the same actor then reappeared as Bedevere, for the finale, it was in the more usual Bedevere colours and design. A little bit strange but, perhaps the mystery could be answered by the rather large stain that adorned Bedevere’s outfit, as this may well have been the reason behind these costume choices.  There were several wigs in this production and the quality of them varied immensely, poor Tomas Lowe looked like he had a large paintbrush on his head.

The props were good and fitted the production, the Lady of the Lake’s oyster shell was particularly good and worked very well.  It’s always nice to have a live band and Gill Merrifield has a reputation as a good musical director and in true form managed to get a lovely sound out of the members of the band.  However, on more than one occasion the band were far too loud and drowned out the singing on the stage.

The Choreography, from Lisa Gage, lacked a little sparkle but I believe this is probably more due to the lack of chorus dancers in many scenes rather than the Lisa’s choreography itself. Throughout the show the quality of the principals singing was high and Shaun Driver in particular did a very memorable rendition of ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ which had the audience singing along too.

I believe that Spamalot is a tricky musical, mostly because to carry it off well you really need the actors to have a good understanding of the Monty Python humour, after all a lot of the audience probably will and will be looking for those iconic lines to be delivered in a very specific way.  Therefore, to sell it well you have to have the pauses in the right places and the correct intonation to make it funny, unfortunately this didn’t always happen and a few great jokes and punchlines were thrown away or not made the most of.  However, this was not always the case and it was obvious that Jonathon Peckover and Richard Walters clearly understood the humour and their portrayals were incredibly funny.  Other cast members that stood out were Matt Parker, as Herbert, and Ben Woof who made an exceptionally funny King Arthur.  The other cast members did a fine job portraying their roles but just few of the gags could have done with being tightened up a little bit, and in the case of the Knights of Nee actually being in there, as the whole “we are no longer the knights who say nee” was completely missing – which is a shame as a lot of humour can be elicited from saying something different each night to try and throw Arthur.  Unfortunately, a couple of the actors were also guilty of over-hamming their parts, I’m as much a fan of a bit of ham as the next person but here it had the effect of changing the characters in a way that didn’t feel right for the play.   

It’s at this point that I would just like to remind you of my comments at the beginning of the review.  Spamalot is a show that is incredibly close to my heart, easily my favourite directing gig in my entire Am Dram career, and perhaps because of this I have been a little picky and over critical with my review.  Regardless of the few points I have made, I would like you to know that overall this was another good production by CUDOS.  Yes, there were a few tweaks that could’ve been made but the audience really enjoyed themselves and I did too.  Congratulations to Nick Harris a fine directorial debut and I hope to get to see another one of his shows soon.

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