Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Saw SPAMalot
Took Erika out on a date this evening to see SPAMalot playing at the Canon Theatre, just opposite the north end of the Eaton Centre. I met her at the City Grill just before 7pm, and had a good, if unremarkable meal served by a harried waiter who seemed to be covering too many tables. Afterwards we headed over to the local chocolatier to get some gourmet munchies during the show.

I had never been to the Canon Theatre before, which has been better known to most Toronto-ites through its long history as The Pantages. Under that name it played host to such long-running shows as The Phantom of the Opera and (I think) Cats back in the 80s and 90s. I have never been much of an Andrew Lloyd Webber fan, so I never saw those productions when they were in town. But a Broadway musical version of Monty Python and The Holy Grail I’ll happily go to see.

I had already heard the soundtrack to the show not too long ago, so I knew that it didn’t follow the same plotline as in the movie. The show is largely a pastiche of the best set pieces from the movie, with a change in the basic plot and outcome.

<spoiler warning>For example, the show doesn’t end because of the local police round up all of the characters in the show after the death of the historian, but instead ends with a double-marriage between Arthur and the Lady of the Lake, and Lancelot and the guy he rescues from the tower (underscoring Lancelot’s line that “this will still be controversial 1500 years from now.” ;-) From the movie there are the familiar (and often expanded) scenes such as that of The Knights Who Say ‘Ni’, the Fight with The Black Knight, the wooden rabbit, the cow catapult (which lands on Patsy but doesn’t kill him), the vicious killer bunny, and of course running into the French knights who taunt King Arthur and his knights. This being a Broadway musical, there are plenty of song and dance numbers, including "Camelot" (which is here turned into a medieval version of Las Vegas), "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" (lifted from The Life of Brian, but fits well here), and new songs, such as that given to the diva playing the Lady of The Lake role, who sings the lament "What Happened to My Part?" after a long absence from the stage. In keeping with the original movie, they also had a fake Finnish part at the very beginning, which includes the “Fish Slapping Song”. This follows through with the programs that were handed out, which imply that you are at a Finnish play (ELK, A New Möösical) whose fictitous cast are comprised of names containing an unlikely number of umlauts, accented vowels and Nordic “O”s (such as "Bin Fááàrkëkki?n", or "Fannnii ?öpsåátli", or "Sädd Áááàrse"). I also appreciated the fact that they are using the pre-recorded voice of John Cleese as The Voice of God. It works. ;-) </spoiler warning>

The casting is excellent, and it was apparent from the quality of the performers that this was the Broadway Touring Company version of the show, rather than one made up of local talent. (Not to disparage the local talent, but New York City undoubtedly has a larger body of talent to immediately call upon). This is also the first production I have seen where a video projector actually has a key role to play in setting some scenes, likely a trend we will see more of.

The ticket prices were expensive, but I would say well worth the price of the show. I would also recommend picking up the Souvenir Brochure (cost: 1 Groat), as the free one handed out has more to say about other Mirvish Productions that the one we actually watched.

It was odd coming out after the show, as there were hundreds of people milling about on Yonge Street and Dundas Square, a heavy percentage of them black. And with them, an equally heavy, and highly visible police presence (even to the point of having mounted riders there). Erika asked one of the officers what it was all about, and she was told that they were there because it was Caribana Weekend. Just couldn’t help but think why the heck anybody would find Dundas Square an interesting enough place to want to bother going there, but I guess it is emerging as Toronto's equivalent of Times Square or Piccadilly Circus.

Labels: Canon Theatre, Caribana, Monty Python, musical, SPAMalot