SPAMALOT, the musical comedy lovingly ripped off from the film classic, MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, returns to Broadway for the first time ever, following a record-breaking sold-out run at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
Peter Marks of The Washington Post exclaims “It’s UNFAIR to make me laugh this much! SPAMALOT is a tightly packed clown car speeding to musical theater nirvana!”
Everything that makes a great knight in the theatre is here, from flying cows to killer rabbits, British royalty to French taunters, dancing girls, rubbery shrubbery, and of course, the Lady of the Lake.
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” of course, was not a big-budget project and “Spamalot” needn’t be either. But if you can’t afford to be spectacular, like Mike Nichols’ original production was, then make the design clever and funny. Nope. This one settles for mere functionality. It’s yet another missed opportunity for the revival to be something at least a little different.
In this company of men, however, it is a woman who really dazzles: Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer as the sword-bestowing Lady of the Lake, whom the show depicts as an attention-hungry prima donna. This is the showcase role that longtime Kritzer fans—another group that includes, full disclosure, me—have been waiting for, and she grabs it by the throat in a full-tilt comedic and vocal tour de force, culminating in the delightfully ostentatious “Diva’s Lament.” It’s in the Lady of the Lake’s spotlight moments, the show’s biggest departure from the nearly all-male Grail, that Spamalot comes into its own most effectively and takes flight—not as an African swallow, capable of carrying significant weight, or merely as a parrot, possibly dead, but as what it is: a lark.
Rush Tickets:
Price: $39
Where: St. James Theatre box office (246 West 44th Street) box office at 10AM ET Monday through Saturday and 12PM ET on Sunday.
Limit: Two per customer.
Restrictions: Locations and number of tickets based on availability; seats may be partial view.
Digital Lottery:
Price: $44
Where: LuckySeat.com
When: For weekday performances, entries will be accepted until 9:30AM ET the day of the performance, with winners being selected beginning at 10AM ET and continuing through the day as needed.
Limit: Two per customer
Information: Winners will have a limited window in which to purchase and claim their tickets, so those entering are encouraged to keep an eye on the drawing on the dates they have entered.
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