Spamalot

Spamalot, with the tagline of a new musical “lovingly” ripped off from Monty Python and The Holy Grail, is everything you’d expect it to be and how can a show possibly fail with characters such as The Knights of Ni, French Taunters, Black Knights and Savage Rabbits, anyway? Simple, it can’t, and with actors as slick in their delivery as these on show, the pace of the thing is breathtaking.

Marcus Brigstock as Arthur, King of The Britons, is exceptional in keeping the role that is trademark Graham Chapman on track, especially when a little too forceful with his sword. Todd Carty, though in a smaller role than might be expected, is a delight as Arthur’s  “horse”, Patsy – complete with coconut shells, and shows there’s much more to his repertoire than School, Soap and Sunhill.

I’d Do Anything winner, Jodie Prenger, too, is outstanding as The Lady of The Lake and shows that to ham it up successfully, and to be able to take the Michael out of yourself whilst doing it, there has to be an awful lot of talent in reserve.

But these are just parts of the whole, for it’s the lesser, multi-roles such as those played Graham MacDuff, Simon Lipkin, David Langham and Samuel Holmes, that make the complete show stick together so well, without ever being so rigid it can’t deviate from the script every so often and get away with it so brilliantly.

Fast, daring, irreverent, quirky, odd, unusual and – above all – still hilariously original even after all these years, this is a show from first to last that not only has the audience in fits throughout, but actively has them out of their seats by its end.

Chris High.

Image 1: Chris High and Marcus Brigstock at The Empire, after Spamalot.

Imahe 2: The very lovely - and really quite short - Jodie Prenger after Spamalot.