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Spamalot

Author: Allison Butler

Information

Date
28th July 2017
Society
Just Good Friends
Venue
Unspecified
Director
Sian Morris

Just Good Friends provided an evening of naughty but nice, thoroughly enjoyable musical comedy with their production of Spamalot. This show, lovingly ripped off from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, tells the tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table as they search for the Holy Grail. As a Monty Python fan, I was chuckling away within the first five minutes but even for those not familiar with this perfectly silly style, it would still have made for a fun and entertaining night out.

The set was cleverly done and worked well for the whole show. Apart from one minor missed cue, sound and lighting did everything it needed to and with only stage microphones, we never struggled to hear dialogue. The costumes were wonderful, bright, bold and imaginative. I loved the blue rain macs for the Lady of the Lake dancers, so a big well done to Sharon Bowen and her team of needlewomen!

Director Sian Morris had obviously worked with the cast to get the comedy balance just right. With material as silly as this, it would be easy to go over the top but this wasn’t the case. Lots of lovely facial expression to the audience and some examples of great comic timing. The musical numbers, with accompaniment from Lesley Prosser, made me want to join in and we all got the chance to do just that for Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Choreography was very good, well done to Llinos McCarthy.

John-Paul Davies played King Arthur with just the right amount of swagger and looked very comfortable in the part. Accompanying King Arthur was his put-upon servant Patsy, played by Chas Griffin. A wonderful comedic performance by Chas, with a definite hint of Baldrick from Black Adder. Chas stayed in character every second he was on stage and definitely drew the eye. A lovely performance too from Jordan Williams as Sir Galahad. The Song That Goes Like This duet with the Lady of the Lake was wonderfully funny! Duncan Leigh as Sir Bedevere and Tim Pettitt playing Sir Lancelot both gave solid performances, with Tim’s coming out bringing whoops of delight from the audience! Ollie Goulstone played camp Prince Herbert well and was very funny. Rhodri Rutherford as Sir Robin was very good and considering this was his debut on stage, should be proud. A truly wonderful performance from Bethany Williams Potter as the Lady of the Lake. Bethany had it all – a stunning voice capable of vocal acrobatics and perfect comic timing meant she was a joy to watch. Her frustration of lack of on-stage minutes in Whatever Happened to my Part was a masterclass in how to act a song, well done! I only wish I’d been able to come twice to watch Georgie Tipping in the part too, as I’m told she was equally as good.

The well drilled ensemble held the show together with some lovely performances. I particularly enjoyed Jeff Lewis as the Knight of Ni. All in all, this was a cast who looked like they were really enjoying themselves and ensured that the audience did too! Thank you for inviting me Just Good Friends, Spamalot was a lot of fun!

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