Monty Python’s Spamalot Opens In Toronto
Posted July 17, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Eric Idle says the art of making people laugh is really more like a fine science, one he perfected during many years with his Monty Python mates.
But now it’s time for a new experiment – bringing the group’s Tony Award-winning musical comedy, Spamalot, to Toronto, a city where such shows can flourish or flounder.
“You always have this theory that if you write this thing, then there will be a laugh at the end of it. So you test it by proving it,” said Idle.
Many of the gags featured within were developed during the 1970s, some even thoroughly tested by Idle and company with extremely encouraging results.
Spamalot opened Monday night at the Canon Theatre, and features Monty Python standbys like taunting Frenchmen, a killer rabbit and the Lady of the Lake.
Those comedy classics were originally featured in the troupe’s 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a popular movie with jokes that are still retold today.
And now, thanks to eight-time Tony Award winning director Mike Nichols, they’ll be retold a few more times to a few thousand people.
The show, with Idle-written lyrics and music he helped compose, includes a touring cast of Michael Siberry, Pia Glenn and Bradley Dean. The same group starred in Boston, Chicago and Washington productions.
Though the show’s Toronto run ends on September 10, it’s fair to say all of them are hoping for a better fate than the musical Lord of the Rings, which despite a multi-million dollar budget folded much earlier than producers had hoped.
But then again, this isn’t Lord of the Rings.
“I realized … that the era of the awful musicals that were all just about special effects was over and it was time to get back to good old comedy,” said Idle.
And by the sound of it, Toronto is ready for just such a romp.
“When we got to the airport … we heard this enormous cheer and we looked behind us to see if some rock group had come by, and realized it was for us,” Idle recalls.
“It was our first Beatle experience and the crowds were ecstatic and went nuts.”
Overture, turn the lights.
