SpamAlot is hot, hot, hot!
I wrote in my article on September 10th that Monty Python’s SpamAlot was a show that was bound to be fun and after seeing the show this past week, it was even better than I thought it could possibly be! I just checked on their box-office website at http://www.broadwaysanjose.com/ and found that there are still tickets for this evening’s 8 p.m. show, as well as tomorrow’s 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. shows so pickup that phone and give them a call. This is one of the most outrageously fun shows you will ever see!
If you are not familiar with the wacky story, it began back in 1969 with a series of comedic skits on BBC that were known as Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The show became so popular that in 1975, the first movie by this wacky troupe was born and Monty Python and the Holy Grail came into being.
King Arthur and his lusty knights of the round table are extracted right from the original movie, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and they are more lusty than ever! King Arthur (played by Christopher Gurr) travels with his faithful servant and sidekick, Patsy, who carries all of his gear while Arthur plods on his quest for the Holy Grail, unfettered! Patsy (played brilliantly by Jeff Dumas) is a master of understatement, with all the right moves and at the right time. The characters in the movie consist of the standards, Sir Lancelot (Matthew Greer), Sir Dennis Galahad (Ben Davis), Sir Robin (James Beaman), the Historian/French Guard/Not Dead Fred/a minstrel/Prince Herbert (all played brilliantly by Christopher Sutton), the Lady of the Lake (Merle Dandridge). There are many actors, each of whom are uniquely well cast for their parts, but to me one of them absolutely most outstanding performers is non-other than Christopher Sutton, the gentleman I interviews while he was in Los Angeles two weeks ago. I would go back to see the show again for a lot of reasons, but I have to say that Mr. Sutton is without a doubt a singular sensation.
One of the characters in the movie exists only as a reference and that is the Lady of the Lake, the mysterious aqueous messenger who brings Excalibur from the waters of the lake and delivers that famous sword to the gentleman who was then to be declared the King of all Briton (England, and if you didn’t know that, you must be a clod!). The expanded that role in the musical so that they would have an excuse for a bunch of downright sexy women to get up on the stage and cavort practically naked!!! (and of course, yours truly loved this part, let’s face it I’m a normal kind of guy)
Of course if the ladies of the lake were any more sexy and vivacious, I would say Viva Camelot and start looking for my own time machine. The Gorgeous Lady of the Lake and her “cheeky Ladies of the Lake, are just plain drop dead beautiful. I love the way one of the characters describes them as “Soggy little blonds, with their bums in the pond” but I would happily be a frog in their pond, just happy to terry and oogle on!
The show is just plain outrageous madcap fun with a flatulent knight, a killer rabbit, a persistent Black Knight who continues to fight even without legs and arms, a group of Knights who say “NI” and demand a “Shrubbery” to allow the King to continue on his quest for the Grail. These hapless chainmail champions were overlooked when the history books were actually recorded, but you can learn all about them now and you will forever be grateful to me for introducing you to Monty Python’s SpamAlot!!!
The story is described more thoroughly in my earlier article, but my point in this little blurb, is to get you off the couch, into your car and send you down the road to Broadway San Jose, in the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts complex at 255 Almaden Blvd., in San Jose, across the street from the San Jose Convention Center. In fact I found that the convention center parking facility, was a very safe and secure place to park my car and it is only half a block away from the theater. Visit their website at http://www.broadwaysanjose.com/ or call (866) 395-2929 for more information. It’s not toooooooo laaaate! Call now!