Review: Spamalot, Bristol Hippodrome (From Wiltshire Times)

Review: Spamalot, Bristol Hippodrome

10:26am Tuesday 24th April 2012 in Theatre & Arts By Craig Jones

Runs until Saturday

SOMETHING completely different took over Bristol Hippodrome in a chaotic storm of silliness when Monty Python’s Spamalot had its first night at the theatre on Monday evening.

The musical, lovingly ripped off from the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, sees a group of knights lead by the noble KIng Arthur, comedian Marcus Brigstocke, search for the Holy Grail.

Spamalot, written by Eric Idle and John Du Prez, has a warm addictive charm which allows the audience, mostly made up of hardcore Python fans and the occasional novice, like myself who has never seen the original, to relate to the characters and hope for them to succeed.

The musical, which has toured Broadway and the West End since its debut in 2004, had the audience laughing in hysterics with the Blackadder-like historic humour as well as numerous nods to modern culture which included topical figures such as John Terry, Cheryl Cole and the new darling of the tabloids Samantha Brick.

The most hilarious scenes were the knights’ meeting with the French at the end of Act 1 which saw them leave a wooden rabbit as a gift and the infamous encounter Black Knight who refuses to relent in a battle with King Arthur.

The greatest thing about Spamalot is the memorable musical numbers which included ‘He is Not Dead Yet’, ‘His Name Is Lancelot’ and the iconic ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ which had the audience singing from the stalls to the boxes.

The rambunctious adult pantomime’s greatest quality is how much audience participation it encourages all the way to the climax of the knight’s search for the grail.