rOcKS @ 'Spamalot'...

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 12/7/05 at 4:24pm

I love the city in the winter. Especially when you’re there to see a show. The windows lined with the best gifts for Christmas. The fact that still with 2 sweaters, a shirt, a jacket, and a scarf, you're still shivering. The ice-skaters and of course, that tree. (Its gorgeous as ever this year). I just love it. And knowing that you're going to be escaping the bitter cold for an entertaining and anticipated evening of theater makes the night all the more wonderous. So, I finally got to Spamalot. It was a warming escape from the cold and while not nearly perfect, it was vastly entertaining. I've been saying I was going since it opened and got there tonight. Great seats, row K in the orchestra. And I'll answer the big question. Did I like it? Yes. It was enjoyable, fun, and above all, impeccably performed. Was it flawed? Very. Did it deserve the Tony? No way.








It takes a while to really get into Spamalot, especially for someone like me and you guys who has seen some really exceptional theatrical productions in the past. This is not one. Is it horrible? Not at all. It’s just not as good as it could have been. Almost every single joke seems to be ripped off from something and TOTALLY unoriginal (David Hyde Pierce's ramblings that went on for about a minute and a half about THE most random and unimportant things were probably meant to be hysterically random but they were just...odd. And while David did as good a job with these moments as he probably could have, they just went on so freaking long!!). This is the poor man's Producers. While The Producers was hysterical, fresh, smart, witty and still vulgar, Spamalot is (as disclaimed on the shows advertisements) "ripped off" from not only the movie but from other sources as well. It just seems so tired and nearly every joke (that could have easily been replaced with a great one) which looked to get a roaring, thunderous round of laughter gathered a few snickers. I really didn't think it was nearly as funny as its been advertised. Some moments made me laugh very hard but not nearly as hard as the far superior Dirty Rotten Scoundrels or even, again, The Producers. That about covers the book. The plot that is attempted to unify the characters and bring them together is extremely lame. The whole "holy grail" thing was forgotten by me about halfway through the show. The book is weak and its disappointing because it could have been so much better. I'll definitely say it again during this review but that’s how I feel about the show. While it IS funny and entertaining, there is so, so, so much more room for improvement. The score is actually not half bad. Some very memorable songs with witty lyrics. And the fact that the cast sings the hell out of them doesn’t hurt. Again, some of the score, however felt ripped off. The song about Lancelot being gay (don’t remember what it was called) was the poor man's Keep it Gay. Just so unoriginal. But there were moments where the scores originality was highlighted above all ("The Song That Goes Like This", "Divas Lament", "I'm All Alone", "Find Your Grail"...) The score was far superior to the book.




The cast of Spamalot is it's best asset by FAR. It's sad that it will be a broken family in a few weeks. I just can't hold it in anymore. I was going to do this by biggest role to smallest but I just can't. Sara Ramirez is f*cking incredible. While her part is TOTALLY underwritten, she does get some great songs that she wails and belts with the best of them in. She really, really shines delivering one of the year's best performances. The supporting females in musicals this year were so incredible but Ramirez is leaps and bounds than all of them combined. She is astonishing. I've honestly never seen a breakout performance like this. She's refreshingly original, absolutely hysterical, an impressive actress, and one of the best singers on Broadway right now. She was all anyone around me could talk about too so I wasn’t the only one totally under her spell. She gives the best female comedic performance in years. I cant rave any more about her than I already have. If you're seeing her before she leaves or if you’ve seen her already, you are extremely lucky. She's phenomenal.




Tim Curry has such a presence about him that its hard not to like him. He was very, very, very entertaining and its great to see him back on Broadway after a far too long absence. Its very relieving to know that he's in such wonderful form. He’s a wonderful comedian and he has a very good voice that is definitely only for certain tastes. I heard people saying they hated his voice and people saying they loved it. I thought his singing voice was great. David Hyde Pierce is someone I've loved since Fraiser began. He is so great in this show and his number "You Wont Succeed on Broadway" is performed with such vigor and energy from him that it's impossible not to thoroughly enjoy it. He's excellent. Hank Azaria is shockingly wonderful. I really thought he'd be the weakest link but by the end of the night, he became the shows strongest male performance for me. He plays so many roles its dizzying and he can pull a joke out of his ass and still make it hysterical. The little quirks her brings to each of his characters is distinguishing and intelligent so that 1; its easier to care about them & 2; its easier to distinguish them. And while he doesn’t sing very much, when he does, his voice is surprisingly stellar. Michael McGrath is so hysterical and low key as Patsy. He is doing a first-rate job here that is totally underrated. Christian Borle is excellent in all the roles he plays bringing various quirks to them like Azaria and distinguishing them all is a chore itself but the fact that he does it with such ease and skill makes it all the more awesome. He's fantastic. And, finally, Christopher Sieber is wonderful in his one big scene (before "Come With Me") and is it his fault a character that was once his main role disappears right after that song? No. It's the book again. The book makes all the characters fall apart and without these people performing these roles and pulling their parts together as much as possible, the book would have disaster written ALL OVER IT. Anyway, Sieber is entertaining in his other minimal roles and he deals with them as skillfully, if not more skillfully than Borle.




The technical aspects of the show are all very good. If you were too look at this show and then look at Wicked, however, it would be hard to believe that Spamalot was a more expensive investment (I believe...tell me if I’m wrong). The sets are fine, nothing amazing. There could have been much more done with the set design. The lighting was wonderful and really clever. The orchestrations were magnificent (the overture was GREAT). The costumes were wildly inventive and wonderfully over-the-top and would have won the Tony in any other year (Zuber's Piazza costumes just cant be beat). The choreography was also fabulous. The "...Broadway" number was tremendously choreographed.




And, finally, the shows direction. I really didn’t see the big appeal. I thought that Nichols' direction was anti-climactic and muddled and didn’t really know what it was doing with certain scenes. His intimate scenes are directed leaps and bounds better than his ensemble/chorus scenes with large amounts of people on stage at once. The ensemble/chorus scenes are confusing and indistinguishable. I thought the direction was half-baked and if it was up to me, the Tony would have gone to James Lapine for Spelling Bee or Jack O'Brien for DRS.


All in all, I enjoyed this show very much. It is very flawed but still so entertaining and well performed. Sara Ramirez is the show's best quality and because of her, the experience I have tonight, I will cherish forever. If she wasn’t in the show, I'd shove it in the back of my mind and think about it occasionally but I cant stop thinking about her and how amazingly breathtaking she was. I would give this show **1/2 out of **** but Ramirez's performance made me have to bump it to ***. She's just...she's a wonder to behold.





Do I recommend it? Yes. Go, enjoy it, I may have analyzed it too much (everyone seemed to LOOOOOOOOOOOVE it around me). The weak aspects of the show include the direction, the book, and the set design. The positive aspects include the score, the cast, the lighting, costumes, orchestrations, and choreography. So I'd say as much as I despised the book, I liked more things about the show than I disliked.


It IS, not to mislead you, the weakest of the four Best Musical nominees (#1: Spelling Bee, #2: Piazza, #3: DRS, #4: Spamalot) but since all four musicals were really good, its hardly criticism. Go see Spamalot and judge for yourselves. Its a good night out and its an entertaining production if nothing more. You definitely get your money's worth.







On another note, I cant get this review to show up on my blog...or at least it wont come up on my computer. What am I doing wrong?
Updated On: 12/7/05 at 04:24 PM

[TheQuibbler]

Posted: 12/7/05 at 4:30pm

I agree with just about everything you said. Enjoyable show, but not a great show. Ramirez is a goddess.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 12/7/05 at 4:33pm

Call me crazy...I'm still glad it won the TONY.

I love PIAZZA as much as the next person, and would have been glad had it won.

But when I went to see SPAMALOT, of all the musicals I saw of last season, that cast was having the most fun.

I'm so tired of people still saying it didn't deserve it. Everyone's entitled to their opinion but no one's going to change the fact that it won.

Either way, I'm glad you had fun.

Updated On: 12/7/05 at 04:33 PM

[SirLiir]

Posted: 12/7/05 at 4:34pm

Very nice, thought out review. Glad you liked it. You pretty much summed up my position on it as well.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 12/7/05 at 4:36pm

FOA: I'm actually glad that it overcame mostly mixed reviews to win. I just thought it was the least deserving. The fact that it won didn't bother me very much (I strongly believe Spelling Bee deserved it but...) because I was happy that it denounced the critics and won.

[WiCkEd4LyFfE]

Posted: 12/7/05 at 5:02pm

Excellent review, rocks. I'm glad you enjoyed Ramirez so much

[thez914]

Posted: 12/7/05 at 6:20pm

hehe...it's funny you should mention not being able to believe spamalot cost more than wicked, while i'm still astonished at how wicked can be so expensively bland.

[bwayondabrain]

Posted: 12/7/05 at 7:01pm

grrrrrrrrreat review!
and you are just way tooo lucky to have been able to see sara!
but i will spread the sara love too!
note the icon <--------
note the signature *down arrow*

:)

[SirLiir]

Posted: 12/7/05 at 8:15pm

Nice avatar! Why is it that I completely forgot her Tony Award's speech and only remember her dress failing repeatedly to cover...that....cleavage. Wait, nevermind. *runs off*

[bwayondabrain]

Posted: 12/7/05 at 8:23pm

oh, that was my fave part of the whol thing!
wish her dress fell down a tiny bit more though... :O :P :)
ha, she is hot...

as my sig says, I LOVE SARA!!!!!

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 12/7/05 at 9:16pm

Her Tony dress was gorgeous...I wanted to wait for her to sign my Playbill because of how much I loved her but it was a tad too cold...even for her.

[bwayondabrain]

Posted: 12/7/05 at 9:19pm

she is all around the best broadway actress on broadway at this moment! she is beautiful, extremely talented, and extremely nice (she sent my sister 4 signed headshots, 1 letter, and 1 thank you note, and me a CAST SIGNED SPAMALOT PLAYBILL and a card- how nice is that!!!!!!)

sara rocks my jeans.

[Cabchic]

Posted: 12/8/05 at 8:32am

Great review Rocks! I personally liked Spamalot more than Bee and DRS but I think alot has to do with your sense of humor. I do think the cast makes a huge difference with Spamalot. I'm curious to see what people think after Tim and Sara leave. I have seen the show with understudies for most of the roles(I've seen the show many times) and the biggest difference is when Sara is out, at least in my opinion. I only missed her once, and I saw her understudy not the standby, and you could tell she was really trying, but she just didn't have the same presence that Sara does, or the voice. And as far as waiting at the stage door, I don't think Sara has been coming out as much in the cold. I'm sure with only 2 weeks left she is being extra cautious not to get sick.

[pab]

Posted: 12/8/05 at 10:46am

"she is all around the best broadway actress on broadway at this moment! "

Okay, let's not get carried away now,

[uncageg]

Posted: 12/8/05 at 11:01am

Thank you pab.

[Ladyofthe Lake]

Posted: 12/8/05 at 11:22am

Because goodness knows nobody here ever uses hyperbole in reference to any other production or performer...geez.

In any event, glad you enjoyed the show, WiCkEDrOcKS! No, it's not perfect, but there's an awful lot there that's worthwhile and fun.

[pab]

Posted: 12/8/05 at 11:40am

"Because goodness knows nobody here ever uses hyperbole in reference to any other production or performer"

Sure they do. Does that make it right? I think not.

[Magdalene]

Posted: 12/8/05 at 11:44am

I'm glad you liked it---it is one of my favs! (is it the best musical ever--no. did it make me happy---absolutely!)

[Ladyofthe Lake]

Posted: 12/8/05 at 12:03pm

"Because goodness knows nobody here ever uses hyperbole in reference to any other production or performer"

Sure they do. Does that make it right? I think not.

But you have no objection to negative hyperbole inferring in a variety of ways that Spamalot is representative of the death of musical theatre, I assume (yes, I know those are comments about the show itself, rather than any of the performers, but the principle is the same). Of course maybe you don't consider that to be hyperbole, but I would beg to differ.

[pab]

Posted: 12/8/05 at 12:19pm

"But you have no objection to negative hyperbole inferring in a variety of ways that Spamalot is representative of the death of musical theatre"

Sure it's hyperbole but I tend to try and respond to the people who have responded to me. You can take that issue of hyperbole up with whoever posted that remark.

I personally don't believe that Spamalot is representative of the death of musical theatre. Trust me, I've seen a lot worst in my years of attending Broadway shows and I'm sure that I'll see even worst in years to come.

I said, when I originally posted about Spamalot, that I thought that Sara was the best performer in the show and the best thing about the show. Do I think that "she is all around the best broadway actress on broadway at this moment!" hell no!

[jeremykushnier1fan]

Posted: 12/8/05 at 1:00pm

I'm glad you enjoyed Spamalot, i loved it to death myself and i'm glad it won the Tony.

[Ladyofthe Lake]

Posted: 12/8/05 at 1:04pm

I must confess that if you've responded against any of the negative hyperbole, I've missed it, hence my comment; I just happened to notice your comment objecting to the bit of positive hyperbole. As for my own responses to the excessively negative comments...I have on occasion, but it depends on either the foulness of my mood or the egregiousness of the comment! (in case you're wondering...today I'm in a foul mood )