Enjoy the lot
Monty Python aficionados (and the uninitiated, nudge nudge, wink wink) will devour the original Broadway cast recording of Spamalot along with copious amounts of ham, jam and spam! Eric Idle’s book (based ever so reverently on the hit film Monty
Python and the Holy Grail) and his combined songsmithing with John Du Prez have resulted in a truly marvellous ode to the foibles of life and how to deal with them. The equally witty orchestrations—replete with spot-on satires of the Great White Way (“The Song That Goes Like This,” “Diva’s Lament (Whatever Happened to My Part?”), cheesy string interventions, choruses of “Ah” or “La,” the occasional banjo strum and the long-loved coconut as horse last, er, hurrah!, tickle the ear and delight the mind. In many ways there’s nothing finer than the “Find Your Grail” wail, so Beatles’ “Let it Be” and even sporting a “Penny Lane” trumpet obbligato! Traditionalists won’t want to miss the Offenbachesque “Run Away” can-can (with a couple of ounces of “William Tell” send away), the Klezmer clarinet shadings which underscores “You Won’t Succeed on Broadway” (“If you don’t have any Jews”) and the naughty bits and pieces of gibberish Gregorian Chant and very-tight tights offerings from the Troubadour Minstrels. Although the singing is more hearty than refined, no one will fail to shed a tear (or loose a fart) for the Python’s mantra “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” Amen to that, cue the coconuts! 
Monty Python's "Spamalot"
(click links for music samples) |
- Tuning - Original Cast Recording
- Overture - Original Cast Recording
- Historian's Introduction To Act I - Original Cast Recording
- Finland / Fisch Schlapping Dance - Original Cast Recording
- Monks Chant / He Is Not Dead Yet - Original Cast Recording
- Come With Me - Original Cast Recording
- Laker Girls Cheer - Original Cast Recording
- Song That Goes Like This, The - Original Cast Recording
- He Is Not Dead Yet (Playoff) - Original Cast Recording
- All For One - Original Cast Recording
- Knights Of The Round Table / The Song That Goes Like This (Reprise) - Original Cast Recording
- Find Your Grail - Original Cast Recording
- Run Away - Original Cast Recording
- Intermission, The - Original Cast Recording
- Historian's Introduction To Act II - Original Cast Recording
- Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life - Original Cast Recording
- Brave Sir Robin - Original Cast Recording
- You Won't Succeed On Broadway - Original Cast Recording
- Diva's Lament (Whatever Happened To My Part?) - Original Cast Recording
- Where Are You? - Original Cast Recording
- His Name Is Lancelot - Original Cast Recording
- I'm All Alone - Original Cast Recording
- Twice In Every Show - Original Cast Recording
- Act II Finale - Original Cast Recording
- Always Look on the Bright Side of Life (Company Bow) - Original Cast Recording
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Lots of yuks (and a shrubbery!) from start to, er, Finnish
The cast of Spamalot
Minstrel, Darryl Semira
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Shea’s Performing Arts Center was “agag” with a flying cow, fanged bunny, queer knights (bringing new meaning to wearing your male, oh, sorry, mail), nearly-dead townsfolk, a scat-rich Lady of the Lake (Pia Glenn belted, wailed and shimmied with authority—even when bemoaning her lack of stage time, “The Diva’s Lament”), the dauntless King Arthur (the affable and oh so game-for-anything, Michael Siberry) as he searched tirelessly, from losing a battle with the French (“I fart in your general direction”) to the photo-op set-up, audience-interactive cryptogram: D101.
Here’s a show that lives its timeless medieval anthem: “Always Look on the Brighter Side of Life.” Don’t miss it when the next generation of Pythons (and John Cleese’s voice forever God!) coil into your bailiwick. Special kudos to conductor Ben Whiteley for keeping the energy emanating from the pit (right from the masterfully rendered trumpet characterizations) and minstrel Darryl Semira whose infectious smile and energetic limbs were a pleasure at every turn.
