The Playhouse in the Park cast rehearses for its upcoming performance of “Spamalot.”
“Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?” “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!” “Huge tracts of land.” and “It’s just a flesh wound.” These are some of the most quoted lines in the play “Monty Python’s Spamalot” presented this month by Playhouse in the Park.
The play is based on the Monty Python movie, “Monty Python and The Holy Grail,” a parody of King Arthur and the Round Table.
It is co-directed by Lisa Cope and William Jones and has approximately 27 people in the cast.
“We describe it as absolute lunacy,” Cope said. “The characters are way over the top … It just seemed to fit nicely into this season, which is titled ‘Something For Everyone.’”
The musical premiered on Broadway in 2005, directed by Mike Nichols, and won three Tony Awards, including the Tony Award for Best Musical of the 2004–2005 season.
“Anyone who is a fan of the 1975 cult-classic ‘Holy Grail’ film who comes to see the musical at Playhouse in the Park will not be disappointed,” Jones said. “Everything you expect to find is there: coconut-clacking servants, piles of ‘not-quite-dead’ people on carts, to name a few.”
The rights to the play were made available in 2013, and Playhouse in the Park bought the rights and had “Spamalot” as part of last season’s shows.
“Spamalot,” however, was bumped to this season when the rights to “Shrek, The Musical” became available.
Still, Playhouse in the Park is one of the first community theaters in this region to put on “Spamalot.”
Though the movie only has two songs, the play incorporates several silly, upbeat songs.
A few new characters are introduced as well, for example, The Lady of the Lake, which is played in the production by Joanne Robertson.
“The musical is great fun for Python fans,” Jones said. “But you don’t have to know the film to enjoy this silly, raucous, hilarious show.”
Story by Brandon Cash, Staff writer