- "Look my liege! A review!"- "A review!"
- "A review!"
- "It's only a musical."
- "Shh!"
Yes, I know it's not a film, but it's based on a film, so that's close enough, surely?
The Monty Python musical is currently playing at the Edinburgh Playhouse this week and given that it's many years since I last saw a theatre production I felt this was an ideal opportunity to rectify that. I didn't know much about the musical in advance aside from the fact that it was written by Eric Idle and based upon Monty Python and the Holy Grail - so I was a little surprised just how closely it resembles the film. In fact, aside from the addition of new songs, this is almost a word-for-word re-enactment of the original movie.
This does of course mean that Spamalot is very entertaining - after all, the film is brilliant - but I can't help feeling that after so many years more newer material could have been added. The new songs are generally not all that funny (a couple of them excepted), but at least they are still very well produced. As it happens, the funniest moment was during the Knights of Ni scene, where the cast on stage nearly started cracking up from an obvious inside joke.
Overall, I would say it's worth seeing, despite maybe not quite living up to its potential. Provided you like Monty Python, of course. And if you don't, what's wrong with you?
P.S. A complete random aside: Todd Carty from EastEnders plays Patsy the "horse" and is surprisingly short.
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