Remember this classic sketch from Monty Python?

[il Padrino Ute]

[BarbaraGordon]

That reminds me. Has anyone seen Spamalot? It comes to Tulsa in July. We'd love to see it, but it turns out with little ones at home we're lucky to get out to see anything more grown-up than Sesame Street Live.

[The Borg]

I see a big, white square.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by BarbaraGordon

That reminds me. Has anyone seen Spamalot? It comes to Tulsa in July. We'd love to see it, but it turns out with little ones at home we're lucky to get out to see anything more grown-up than Sesame Street Live.

I saw Spam-a-lot in NYC last year. The last couple of times we had gone to NYC I had wanted to see it and my wife always vetoed the idea. She finally relented and we got tickets. You must understand I am a huge fan of Python. I was one of those geeks (my kids would say "what do you mean WAS?") that would walk around quoting significant portions of skits and singing about cross-dressing lumberjacks, etc. So I was very excited to see it.

This background just makes it that much harder for me to report that it was not very good. The first half, in fact, was awful. They loosely followed the Holy Grail story and repeated many of the same skits word for word and then they would sing about it. Example: They did the "bring out your dead" routine. It was funny, but it is just a little skit in the broader movie. Here they do the original skit, word for word, and then they turn it into a big production number. The skit just wasn't that funny. It just wasn't meant to sustain a Broadway song. Then they would jump back into some other skit, doing it word for word from the movie.

Think about that: they were doing exactly what I had done for the last 30 years and except for the costumes and orchestra they were more like me than they were like Cleese or Palin and gang. The problem with the word for word renditions, you see, is that while the material is good, you are very familiar with it and every line they utter immediately suffers by an automatic comparison to the original in your head.

The second half veered into a slightly different plot and actually got into some better material, but on balance I was so disappointed that if I had not been too proud to admit to my wife that it was a bad idea, and too cheap to walk out on a Broadway priced ticket, I would have left at the intermission.

Joe Bob says 1/2 star; do NOT check it out and if you need a Python fix, rent one of their films.

This is all MO, of course; YMMV.

[BarbaraGordon]

Wow. I'm glad you told us, Creek. We're much the same as you in that we'll randomly badger our kids with re-enactments. Like if our son (age 7) has to go to the bathroom, one of us stands guard at the door and has him state his name, quest, and favorite color. If he fails we throw him in the bathtub. (It's amazing how early they learn to roll their eyes at mom and dad.)

But I figure he'll thank us later when he can quote entire sketches verbatim and thus be the coolest kid at school, right?


So, anyway, sounds like we'd be disappointed, too. But I don't understand. If the Python fans don't like it, then who is it aimed at?

[BigFatMeanie]

Originally Posted by BarbaraGordon

Wow. I'm glad you told us, Creek. We're much the same as you in that we'll randomly badger our kids with re-enactments. Like if our son (age 7) has to go to the bathroom, one of us stands guard at the door and has him state his name, quest, and favorite color. If he fails we throw him in the bathtub. (It's amazing how early they learn to roll their eyes at mom and dad.)

But I figure he'll thank us later when he can quote entire sketches verbatim and thus be the coolest kid at school, right?


So, anyway, sounds like we'd be disappointed, too. But I don't understand. If the Python fans don't like it, then who is it aimed at?

That's funny. I always say to my kids at dinner:

"If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding"
"How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?"

I also sing the Rolling Stones "You can't always get what you want.." to them whenever they whine about stuff. They thought I was just making that song up until one day when they heard it on the radio.

[creekster]

Originally Posted by BigFatMeanie

That's funny. I always say to my kids at dinner:

"If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding"
"How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?"

I also sing the Rolling Stones "You can't always get what you want.." to them whenever they whine about stuff. They thought I was just making that song up until one day when they heard it on the radio.

Do you also cheer them up on their birthdays with "And the Sun is the same in a relative way but you're older; shorter of breath and one day closer to death"?

[creekster]

Originally Posted by BarbaraGordon

So, anyway, sounds like we'd be disappointed, too. But I don't understand. If the Python fans don't like it, then who is it aimed at?

I am not sure. The production is big and flashy, I suppose, and the original material is funny. And it could be that I am just grouchy (again, my kids would say "what do you mean COULD BE?").

I asked myself the same question. To tell you the truth the night we were there it seemed like much younger people were the ones enjoying it. Most of the people my age or older (and we were legion) seemed a bit put off by the whole affair.

[RockyBalboa]

I like the Broadway Soundtrack you can get on CD with Tim Curry and Hank Azaria.