Spamalot. Great stuff.

Jen and I saw Spamalot last night, and I have to say,
it was phenomenal. What makes this review particularly
significant was that this particular show was bereft of
much of its star-power. Hank Azaria, in a totally
non-publicized move, had already jumped ship for Simpsons,
Season 294 or Along Came Polly 2, and Tim Curry and (according
to Jen) young Julliard phenom Sara Ramirez had the night
off, leaving David Hyde Pierce to fend for himself in the
role of Brave Sir Robin.

Missing Curry was a bit of a downer, but it didn't take
away from our enjoyment of the show, which is brilliantly
written and directed, with a series of jaw dropping set
changes and special effects that were, perhaps, the most
elaborate I've ever seen on Broadway. Curry's stand-by
(someone, maybe Dan McCoy, please enlighten me as to the
difference between a 'stand-by' and an 'understudy' as both
were listed in the Playbill) was John Bolton, who, despite
his insipid name and horrid headshot, did a stellar job.
And the cast role-players all nailed their roles.
The choreography was great.. I think.. though I really have
no business pretending I know how to dance, or even how to
identify what makes dance good.

Bottom line... what made it so enjoyable was that I enjoyed
Holy Grail much more as a pure musical than as a movie with
a tune here and there. I blogged a while back that I can't
rank Grail or any other Python movie in my top 10 early morning
re-watches... however, I could certainly stumble away from
the bars at 2 am to watch this production time and again.
Speaking of that list, it probably needs amending: Napoleon
Dynamite, Anchorman, and Wedding Crashers are all serious
heavyweights in the comedy department and I was on the fence
with a couple of those initial rankings...

Uhh. So come see Spamalot on Broadway before it closes (and
begins its 10 year run in 5 other cities). In particular, I
am speaking here to my family. I'm not gonna say you should
come to NYC for Pillowman or Glengarry or even Christina
Applegate's new show, but this production is worth the ten hour
drive from Ohio or North Carolina.

Show highlight: Brave Sir Robin's song on Jews and Theater.
Show lowlight: Alan Tudyk, Azaria's replacement as Lancelot.
He brought almost zilch to the character. Tudyk was your token,
'guy you've seen on TV a bunch, who is not that good on stage.'
In Glengarry it was Frederick Weller. Must we have this weak
link in every big-time theater production?
Show question-mark: No "Three Questions" Scene. They went
right from the Holy Hand grenade into the closing number. Up
to that point, the musical was very faithful to the movie. A
curious omission, Eric Idle.

NEXT WEEK: I'll be the 193,483rd guy in America to blog about how
the fantasy football draft went. Stay tuned.