Reviewed by Amalisha HuEck
Strongly Recommended – entertaining and wildly funny
Great humor combined with general silliness brings us nothing more than brilliant insanity. On the top of some Tony nominated performers, there is another, very important actor on the stage in this production – a pair of coconut shells representing the galloping of the horses. That is so well done and super fun to watch.
SPAMALOT – a musical, book and Lyrics by Eric Idle and music by John Du Prez & Eric Idle, beautifully taken from the motion picture, ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’, opened on March 24th at Hollywood Pantages Theatre. Being inspired by the original screenplay, by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, the 1975 film consists of individual vignette sketches that build toward a full-length film. Later, being inspired by its lunatic imagination, the stage production became a Tony-winning musical, where we see the boundless out of the ordinary creativity, as cow being thrown from the castle, and white rabbit as a keeper of the Holy Grail that kills everyone who wants to pass through it. This medieval legend takes a place in England in 1932 AD, and touches upon many tales during the main tale of King Arthur, who is recruiting knights to join him on his God-given quest to seek and lead his round table to the Holy Grail.
Produced by two-time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer Jeffrey Finn and directed and choreographed by Josh Rhodes, Spamalot with its absurdity makes the audience laugh out loud a lot during the performance. Major Attaway delivers King Arthur with full intensity, using his powerful and so pleasant to ear baritone voice. I could listen to him forever. The Lady of the Lake is Amanda Robles, who is extremely gifted with the star qualities and her amazingly strong voice resonates through the theatre space. And her ladies truly shine in those spectacular butterfly-like transparent costumes by creative Costume Designer Jen Caprio. And the whole cast has lots of fun by going over the board with silliness. When they have fun, the audience have fun as well.
‘The tunes in Spamalot come directly from Monty Python’s own musical DNA — mostly from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) with additional new songs written specifically for the Broadway show. The score blends adapted Python material with original Broadway‑style numbers crafted by Eric Idle and composer John Du Prez. All the songs are very familiar because of their music standards. The tunes of Spamalot are a hybrid: part adapted from Holy Grail (and one from Life of Brian), part newly composed, all filtered through Eric Idle’s comedic sensibility and John Du Prez’s theatrical orchestration.’
There is a lot of heart being put into singing and dancing during the production. Songs like, ‘Knights of the Round Table’, ‘Brave Sir Robin’, ‘Camelot Song’ and ‘Find Your Grail’, with some real parts and some digital projections of the castle and the Trojan Horse being thrown from it, take us back into the legendary England and the time of Sir Arthur. The final music score “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”, is not from Holy Grail but from Life of Brian (1979) and was added to Spamalot because it is one of Python’s most iconic songs. Afterwards, when visiting the lady’s room and walking in the parking lot towards my vehicle, that tune was heard from all the sides, everyone was singing it.
All my life I’ve heard how funny SPAMALOT is, but I had never seen the stage production of it or the movie. I can see how the different zany kind of humor, as in this show, can be more amusing to some than others depending on personality. Even if you start with being confused at first, somehow this show grows on you, and you find yourself humming the tunes afterwards.
The run of Spamalot continues through April 12th, 2026, at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA. For tickets call (323) 468-1770 or go to www.BrodwayInHollywood.com