SPAMALOT

VINTAGE THEATRE: NOV.4 – DEC 11

         The cast of SPAMALOT

With music by John Du Prez and Eric Idle and book and lyrics by Eric Idle, “Spamalot” is a musical comedy that’s adapted from the 1975 movie, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

     Irreverent and hilarious, it parodies the legends of King Arthur and his knights, peppered with some peasants spouting Marxist quotes.

     Directed by Mike Nichols on Broadway, the show was nominated for fourteen Tony Awards, and won three, including Best Musical.

     Vintage Theatre’s production of MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT is a rollicking romp that’s a joyously unbridled and utterly anarchic (not Antarctic!) comedy!

     Co-directors Bernie Cardell and Heather Frost's  stage direction of Vintage Theatre’s production pulls out all the stops in this comic romp. 

      The cast is brilliant to a man/woman!

      Colorado favorite, Markus Warren is regally self-absorbed and eminently bewildered as Arthur, King of the Britons.

     As Patsy, Cole Henson is equally uncertain of his part in the quest! As Arthur’s ever attentive side-kick, he even provides the clip-clop of invisible horses with two halves of a coconut.

    Matt LaFontaine is extremely well-suited to Monty Python’s iconic brand of comic anarchy. His portrayals of Not Dead Fred and Herbert sparkle with broad strokes of physical humor on the one hand, and the “woe is me” fawning of a spoiled brat on the other.

     Faith Siobahn Ford’s portrayal of the Lady of the Lake is glorious! Her singing of “The Song that Goes Like This” with Eric Crawford’s preening Sir Galahad, which sends up the chandelier-shattering Andrew Lloyd Webber compositions such as those in “The Phantom of the Opera,” is utterly amazing!

     Andrew Uhlenhopp, who opens the show as narrator/ history professor is true comic genius. 

     Cheryl Faulkner’s costume design for the show’s eye-popping Laker girls, gives us a riot of colorful French can-can skirts and splashy Vegas attire!

     The shimmering wardrobe created by Faulkner for Ms. Ford is as stunning, as the tunics and chain mail for Arthur and his men are spot on.

     And if you’re as much a fan of the original cast recording as this reviewer is, let me just say that the music direction by Heather Iris Holt delivers the goods to perfection.

     Robert Janacek’s set design is comprised of two castle turrets from which at one point, a French guard taunts King Arthur with such vulgar epithets, you will think he has Tourettes Syndrome. 

     Is it just me, or do stories of the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, carnivorous rabbits and a quest for a shrubbery required by some people who say “NEE,” seem ‘par for the course’ as far as news stories go these last several years?

     Nevertheless, this show is the perfect theatrical antidote for the insanity bred as reality daily on the evening news.

      GO! GO! GO! AND LAUGH!!!

 

303-856-7830 or online at www.vintagetheatre.org

Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton St., Aurora 80010

90 Minutes no intermission.