Spamalot

A few years ago an undergrad in my class did his programming project based on the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He attached a note to the project suggesting that I see the movie. I should have failed him right there and then. He should have known that every nerdy American of my generation saw that movie several times and memorized most of the dialog.

To relive those glory days last night my wife and I went to see Spamalot, the new Eric Idle musical based on Holy Grail with a nifty cast of Tim Curry as King Arthur and David Hyde Pierce and Hank Azaria as lots of other characters. The show had many of the great bits from the movie ("just a flesh wound") but completely skipped others ("answer me these questions three"). The songs lacked memorable melodies but mostly had pretty funny lyrics. Besides following the rough plot of the movie the show also parodies big budget musicals allowing them to add a female lead who could sing (Sara Ramirez) and leading up to a happy ending that made me miss the non-ending of the movie.

In short I and the rest of the audience had a great time and laughed throughout but it won't go down in history as one of the great musicals.