Review: Spamalot Brings Monty Python To Wimbledon

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Looking on the bright side of life in SW19

Monty Python comes alive on the stage with the tale of the knights of the round table. The 1970's homage to the 5th and 6th centuries has been a Broadway production and graced the West End before arriving in......Wimbledon.

Don't laugh but please do, and you should! Even if you cannot recite each line from the original film ("your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries"– see I can do it!) this is a very entertaining piece of theatre.

Sticking closely to the original Python plot and Eric Idle's songwriting there's a winner in there somewhere. Where is it? Joe Pasquale plays King Arthur and is fantastic in the role, both delivering his lines and wooing the audience at the same time. However, another star of the show is Sarah Earnshaw as The Lady of the Lake. Sarah’s vocal delivery on The Diva's Lament is superb.

The plot? Keep up, it's Monty Python and the Holy Grail with a (more than) smattering of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". It's King Arthur and a bloke with a couple of coconut shells – but where did he get them from? The cast is more than energetic and Joe Tracini playing Patsy as King Arthur's acolyte more than deserves a mention, so consider it done. Dance/movement scenes are executed well and you could not fault the energy that the cast put into them.

You almost know what you're getting with a stage version of Python; it's going to be funny and lively and this is both. How do you execute the "It's just a flesh wound" scene? With clever stage production this is performed superbly well.

Both Acts are paced well but the show really kicks off with the full company on stage for the very energetic "Camelot" near the end of Act 1. Cast members multi task seamlessly in their roles and given the fact that they are playing Wimbledon Broadway and not New York's Broadway they still give their all.

Spamalot has played around the world but this production was a very enjoyable evening, well done to all concerned.

• Spamalot runs at New Wimbledon Theatre until Saturday (June 13).

By Eamonn Sylvester

June 9, 2015