Copious Notes

By Rich Copley
Herald-leader cultural critic
CINCINNATI — It’s not something completely different for Broadway.
But it is undoubtedly Monty Python, and for many patrons at Spamalot, that is quite enough.
Spamalot is the stage version of Python’s 1974 classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a movie many of us would rank as one of the funniest films ever made.
The Tony-winning musical, the national tour of which is in Cincinnati, hits most of the major characters and scenes from the film: the French taunters, the killer rabbit and even the dismembered Black Knight. There are even allusions to other Python classics, including a sing-along Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, the crucifixion ditty from Life of Brian (1979).
Initially, there’s concern the musical will cling too closely to the film as Arthur chats with a castle guard about the ability of swallows to carry coconuts. Many of us can recite the scene. It’s funny dialogue, but if you get too much, you may start to wonder why you didn’t just stay home and pop in the DVD.
In fairly short order, though, Spamalot breaks out with the first appearance of the Lady of the Lake, a diva made up of parts of Whitney, Celine, Betty Buckley and even Ella. Pia Glenn’s tack-sharp timing and formidable voice steal this show.
The Lady and Arthur’s first duet, The Song That Goes Like This, is a brilliant send up of Andrew Lloyd Webber and his schlocky ilk, complete with a chandelier.
It’s amusing to think that the American Theatre Wing gave Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera and Spamalot Tony Awards for best new musical.
Holy Grail was Python’s satire of medieval literature, Eric Idle clearly knew he had stepped into musical theater when he wrote Spamalot, and that’s where he aims his wit.
Being so heavy on satirical content does raise the question of how well Spamalot will hold up over the decades. Will community theatres be doing it in 40 years? The answer, like the musical, might be tied to the popularity of the movie.
For now, though, Spamalot is one of the funniest nights of theater out there, just different and creative enough to be worth the price of admission.

Spamalot runs through Oct. 29 at the Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut St., Cincinnati. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 2 and 8 p.m. Sat., 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sun. Tickets are $27-$75 and available by clicking here or calling (859) 281-6644.

Notes: The merchandise stand for Spamalot has some great items, including killer rabbit slippers and a Black Knight doll with removable arms and legs. I was attracted to the "I’m not dead yet," T-shirt, but passed fearing wearing it may be ironic one day.

Take our Monty Python and the Holy Grail quiz.

If you go to one of the Cincinnati dates. make sure you visit  the Weston Art Gallery on the Seventh Street side of the Aronoff Center. The current show is Blue Collar, sculptures by Kyle and Kelly Phelps (including Miss America, left). The twin brothers, who create searing sculptures of working class America, graduated from the University of Kentucky with masters degrees in fine arts and are now on the faculty at the University of Dayton. The show is quite striking.

While our proud nation was counting citizen No. 300 million yesterday, Copious Notes had a fun little milestone of its own. This blog had its 10,000th visitor since signing up with Sitemeter, a free service that monitors website traffic, Aug. 18. If you have a website, Sitemeter is a fun and somewhat addictive way to keep tabs on your traffic (Bible Belt Blogger Frank Lockwood was my enabler, and now Jamie Gumbrecht is on Sitemeter too). Sitemeter lets you see all kinds of things, like how long people are on the site, where they’re logging in from and what pages they’re checking out. Just so this doesn’t seem too Big Brother to you, I do not get your e-mail or any personal information that would allow me to identify who you are. But I get to learn all sorts of fun things. Like, when I was blogging about RockStar: Supernova, the site was getting a lot of hits from Iceland, the homeland  of one of my favorite contestants, Magni (photo, right).  I know quite a few of you  leave to go visit my friend Julie Phillips and her Living at the Movies archive for the Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald, which makes me happy, because she is the best movie critic you aren’t reading. Our biggest day was a post announcing Brian Littrell would be coming to Lexington to sing at the citywide memorial service for victims of Flight 5191. And you like anything Harry Potter.

For the record, vistor No. 10,000 was a subscriber to bellsouth.net in Louisville, who came to Copious Notes through Kentucky.com at 11:27 a.m. and read the main page of the blog.

This all feels way to self referential, so I’ll stop here. But thanks for all the hits, keep ‘em coming, and feel free to comment or e-mail me with your thoughts.