Review: MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT at Ordway

People were laughing before the story even got fully underway—and that pretty much sets the tone for Monty Python’s Spamalot at the Ordway, running through June 14.

The national tour leans hard into the silliness of Monty Python’s world, and it works. This is a fast, joke-heavy, sometimes ridiculous night at the theater that keeps moving at such a clip there’s barely time for a gag to settle before the next one arrives.

The plot—King Arthur’s search for the Holy Grail—is really just a loose framework for everything else: musical numbers that suddenly go off the rails, unexpected detours, and the kind of humor that jumps from clever to completely absurd without warning.

Major Attaway plays King Arthur with a steady, slightly exasperated seriousness that works well against the chaos happening around him. He doesn’t try to out-joke the material, which is exactly why it lands.

Graham Keen got some of the biggest laughs of the night as Sir Robin, fully committing to the character’s legendary cowardice. Chris Collins-Pisano’s Sir Lancelot leaned into bold, exaggerated swagger, while Ellis C. Dawson III played Sir Bedevere’s rigid logic straight enough that it became funny on its own. Leo Roberts rounded things out as Sir Galahad with an easy, good-natured energy.

Amanda Robles, though, is the one who really stops the show. As the Lady of the Lake, she has the kind of voice that fills the Ordway without effort, and she knows exactly how to play the humor without undercutting it. The audience responded every time she walked onstage. Blake Segal’s Patsy was another highlight—quietly funny, very physical, and one of the more grounded presences in the whole production.

Director and choreographer Josh Rhodes keeps everything moving at a breakneck pace. There’s no room for dead air, and the show doesn’t really allow itself to linger on anything too long—which, in this case, is a strength.

Visually, it’s bright and intentionally over-the-top, with costumes and projections that lean into the “anything can happen” tone. At one point, the show even pulls the audience into the action, which turned into one of the more memorable shared moments of the night.

What really stands out is the atmosphere in the room. The cast looks like they’re having fun, and the audience follows right along with them. It’s loud, loose, and often ridiculous in the best way.

By the end, the standing ovation felt less like tradition and more like a release of energy after two hours of nonstop comedy.

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