Laker Girls. Flying cows. Evil rabbits. What more do you need on a quest for the Holy Grail? Oh, that’s right — knights. Make that the Five Knights of the Round Table, to be exact. Toss in some cross-dressing damsels and the deranged recipe results in the Tony Award-winning Monty Python’s Spamalot, an eventful and downright ridiculous musical comedy that comes to the Kentucky Center May 15-20.
The journey, complete with outrageous songs (“He Is Not Dead Yet,” “The Song That Goes Like This”), begins in England’s fictional Camelot, as God — a recorded voice — commands King Arthur and his knights to find the Holy Grail. They gather to accomplish the task but first agree that “what happens in Camelot, stays in Camelot.” That’s a good motto because during their search the crew encounters taunting Frenchmen, the threatening Black Knight, a wedding and, of course, a Trojan bunny. The madness may make it difficult to follow a plot, but that’s OK. The nonsensical events — and egged-on audience participation — are why the performance is worth seeing.
Eric Idle created Spamalot in 2005 by lovingly ripping off the 1975 movie Monty Python and The Holy Grail, which he helped film. The flick’s cult following will surely recognize similarities between the show and the movie (the lyrics, for example), but Idle has also managed to cleverly add new jokes about pop culture, including parodies of Broadway shows such as The Producers, West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof.
Half nostalgic, half remorseful, the musical’s title refers to British food rationing during World War II and the excess amounts of U.S.-supplied Spam eaten. “We dine well here in Camelot,” the knights sing. “We eat ham and jam and Spam a lot.” Overall, the lyrics are off-the-wall, much like Spamalot as a whole. But if you look past the flying cows and Trojan bunny, a message may actually exist: “If life seems jolly rotten / There’s something you’ve forgotten / And that’s to laugh and smile and dance and sing.”
Spamalot will be shown at Whitney Hall May 15-18 at 8 p.m., May 19 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and May 20 at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Tickets cost $27-$67. Ages 13 and older unless with parents. For more information call (502) 562-0100 or visit www.kentuckycenter.com.
