Sunday, June 24, 2007

SPAMALOT

I don’t think I had ever seen a musical on stage until the first year I got married. I had been to lots of plays, and had seen the movie versions of things like The Sound of Music, but as for experiencing a musical live and in person, I didn’t really understand the appeal.

However, shortly after our wedding my father-in-law gave us season tickets to the Dallas Summer Musicals…and I was hooked! There’s something about being in the audience as it is being performed that’s really cool.

A couple of years ago my father-in-law thought that the upcoming season look particularly good, and he decided to get season tickets for the four of us. We enjoyed the season so much that we’ve repeated our season tickets for the last three or four years. However, this is the first season that Spamalot has come to Dallas.

Spamalot is basically the Holy Grail put to music. The Playbill puts it this way:


Monty Python’s
SPAMALOT
A New Musical (lovingly) ripped off from the motion picture
"Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

I’m here to tell you that it is simply incredible! - My new favorite musical.

If you're even kind of a Python fan, then do whatever you must to go see it...It’s well worth your time and money.


3 comments:

Dawn said...

Hugh,

We live in the Philadelphia suburbs and are in New York several times a year. I count myself lucky to have seen many musicals and Spamalot is definitely among the best.

My husband and I actually saw one of the last performances with the entire original cast (David Hyde Pierce, Hank Azaria, Tim Curry and Sara Ramirez) and they were simply amazing (Sara Ramirez won all the awards that year and she deserved every single one - she is absolutely wasted on that tv show where she never sings at all). I believe I read somewhere that Mike Nichols was absolutely brutal in his direction; that if something wasn't pee in your pants funny, it was cut.

Of current shows, I'd also strongly recommend Hairspray (you couldn't possibly leave without a smile on your face), Wicked (the Wizard of Oz from the witch's perspective), and The Drowsy Chaperone (a clever, show-within-a-show, old style musical). The Producers was also great, but I understand that it isn't quite as good without the charisma of Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, which led it to close in NY recently.

Best wishes,
Dawn

Hugh said...

Dawn,

Wicked is great! It was my favorite before I saw Spamalot. I haven't seen Hairspray, but my wife loves it.

The Producers is also really good, although not for kids. I haven't seen The Drowsy Chaperone.

Anonymous said...

Kathleen and I went to see SPAMALOT on your review and loved it. Great show. If you like that type of humor, which we do, it is a must see. Thanks for giving us the heads up!

Would love to see you guys. Keep in touch.

Tracy W