‘Monty Python’s Spamalot’ on Broadway: Knights Out

metroweekly.com:

Monty Python’s Spamalot. The spoof, based on the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, is back on the Broadway boards after a critically acclaimed run earlier this year at the Kennedy Center.Whether you’ll look on the bright side with approval or wish that this quest had more grit may depend upon your expectations of production values and your threshold for unabashed silliness.Tony-winner James Monroe Iglehart leads a top-notch cast as the medieval King Arthur, whose aim is to recruit other men to his Round Table and guide them to the utopia of Camelot.Camelot, as it turns out, is a glitzy casino — an ideal setting for a song and dance routine.

And composers John Du Prez and original Python Eric Idle ensure that there will be no shortage of musical numbers in this production, which is bursting at the seams with them.Sir Robin (Michael Urie), Sir Lancelot (Taran Killam), Sir Galahad (Nik Walker), and Sir Bedevere (Jimmy Smagula) are among Arthur’s loyal followers who meander the woods with him until they are called by God (Steve Martin, in voice only) to a greater purpose: locate the Holy Grail.Fans of the movie or those who saw the initial Broadway stage production, which debuted in 2005 and ran four years, should expect nothing new here.

While this ensemble is comprised of fine talent, they are all saddled with the same burden as nearly every actor cast in screen to stage treatments: to infuse originality into their characters.Lines and material are so deeply embedded into people’s memories from the original film.

If performers lean into their own interpretations, audiences feel betrayed. Yet if actors dutifully mimic the original source material, one must question the reason for theatergoers to drop top dollar for.