[This entry was written about 8:30 AM on Saturday, January 15, 2005]
As I’ve been noodling around the Internet this morning whilst LJ is down (I’m writing this entry and queuing it for LJ’s eventual return), I visited one of my favorite musical sites, Talking Broadway. There I discovered that the Monty Python musical Spamalot is in previews in Chicago (japlady—you should go see it!). The review is posted here; here are some excerpts:
A narrator tells the audience this will be a story of England, but he’s misunderstood by the cast, who launch into an opening number celebrating instead the joys of Finland (“Fisch Schlapping Song”). ..
Two scenes later we get our first clue that Idle’s taking a new turn on these medieval roads. As Arthur tells the story of his encounter with The Lady of the Lake (Sara Ramirez, in the largest of her three roles), who led him to the stone holding the sword Excalibur that would make him king, the Lady is joined by the “Laker Girls,” medieval cheerleaders complete with pompons. Next, she and Sir Galahad (Sir Dennis Galahad, I might add) sing a send-up of Broadway love songs (“The Song That Goes Like This”) and we start to see where Idle is heading. There are few targets from late 20th century Broadway musicals he misses, with his satiric arrows pointed at the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber (a chandelier crashes), Sondheim (“Another hundred people just got over the plague”), Les Miz (you can guess) and Frank Wildhorn (with the inspirational ballad “Find Your Grail”). He even covers recent shows like Wicked, The Boy From Oz, and yes, The Frogs.
In general, the review is one of the most glowing I’ve seen. The article notes that Spamalot continues through January 23rd, 2005 at the Shubert Theatre, 22 W.Monroe St., Chicago, IL. Tickets for the remainder of the Chicago run, if available, can be purchased at the box office or through Ticketmaster. Broadway previews begin at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre, 225 W. 44th St., New York, on February 14, 2005. My guess is that it will run on Broadway for a while; I wouldn’t expect to see it in Los Angeles until at least the 2007-2008 season. Hmmmm, makes one want to go on a trip to New York this summer…
