"BestOfVegas"
09/10/07 -see other reviews-
 Attitude - 4 Eye Candy - 3 Price - 2
"What Happens in Camelot, Stays in Camelot!"
From a review by Karen D'Souza of Mercury News
"And now for something completely different. Grab a commemorative Holy Grail in the lobby, and settle in for highbrow musical theater along the lines of the "fish slapping" dance and the "knights who say Ni." Oh, did we mention the snooty French soldiers who pass gas in your general direction? Suffice to say, Sondheim this ain't. But perhaps because "Spamalot" was never about taking the musical genre particularly seriously, this is by far the most successful of the Broadway revamps on the Strip. Lovingly "ripped off" from the 1975 cult classic "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," among other flicks, this über-cheeky musical pays homage to and pokes fun at not just the Python canon but also Las Vegas itself. What happens in Camelot, stays in Camelot! The shticky bits come so fast and hard here that you hardly notice that some of the numbers don't shine as brightly as in their original movie incarnations (such as "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"). But that's a quibble in light of this musical's thoroughly infectious frivolity. Naysayers can just go and boil their bottom.
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A review by San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Matt Villano:
"Welcome & Unique
While Las Vegas continues to mature as a mecca for foodies, Spam is making quite a statement at the Wynn Las Vegas resort. On the big stage, that is.
That's where you'll find "Monty Python's Spamalot," a comedic musical "lovingly ripped off from" the satirical 1975 film, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Eric Idle, a member of the original Monty Python comedy team, wrote the show's book and lyrics. Like the cult-classic movie, the stage version parodies the legend of King Arthur and makes fun of the French. There also are familiar flatulence jokes and other forms of potty humor. But the show adds laugh-out-loud satire and mocks musical theater in general, a refreshing twist for those who find musicals a bit cheesy.
The Wynn's version of "Spamalot" premiered in the casino's appropriately named Grail Theater in March, almost two years after a version of the same show first appeared on Broadway in New York. Since opening night, the Vegas musical has sold out almost every show, to rollicking crowds.
While a lot of these theatergoers come for a guffaw-inducing dose of Python, it's clear from audience response that many also come to see John O'Hurley, who stars as King Arthur.
O'Hurley is perhaps best known for his role as J. Peterman on "Seinfeld." He also was the ultimate champion on the first season of "Dancing With the Stars."
In this role, O'Hurley is a perfect comic hero: brash and brazen, yet subtly self-effacing. At times, his deadpan delivery and larger-than-life presence had me laughing so hard I nearly spilled my $14 piña colada (served in a plastic grail, of course).
The show begins in medieval England, where a despondent Arthur travels the land to recruit knights to join him in Camelot. In a sequence of hilarious scenes, he finds a number of promising candidates, including the meek Sir Robin, the mullet-headed Sir Galahad and the flamboyant Sir Lancelot.
"Holy Grail" fans will cheer the depiction of Not Dead Fred, a peasant who is mistaken for a corpse but is actually, well, not dead. Later, during a number dubbed "The Knights of the Round Table," O'Hurley and his knights reiterate the namesake line from the film and hail Camelot as a place where they can "eat ham and jam and Spam a lot."
Other moments are vintage Monty Python. After a band of squealing knights demands that Arthur create a Broadway musical, Sir Robin steals the show with his rendition of "You Won't Succeed on Broadway." At one point in the song, I noticed the man sitting next to me crying with laughter. Later, when Sir Lancelot is outed after falling in love with Herbert (whose overbearing father was forcing him to marry a woman), strobe lights create the effect of a dance club in the Castro, with phallic motifs.
There are parts that drag. The Lady of the Lake, a diva-like character who looks frighteningly like RuPaul, exists exclusively to advance the plot and hogs the stage for far too long. In the movie, this character is only spoken about; her presence here is an obvious ploy to work a woman into the show.
Still, the Lady, as she's known, is central to some of the show's funniest moments. Her scantily clothed disciples, the "Laker Girls," mock cheerleaders with side-splitting levity. Later, during "The Song That Goes Like This," she and Sir Galahad sing an equally hilarious love song about the predictability of love songs.
In a town that obsesses over sex, gluttony, gambling and other such sins, the show's lighthearted approach to entertainment is welcome and unique. This is one kind of Spam every Vegas buffet should include. "
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