Monty Python’s Spamalot

“Lovingly ripped off” from the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, with a book by Python Eric Idle, and a score by Idle and John Du Prez, Spamalot is a totally irreverent and typically Pythonesque parody of the Arthurian Legend: The legendary King Arthur, accompanied by his faithful servant, Patsy, travels through his kingdom, collecting members for his Knights of the Round Table. Some of his recruits include Sir Robin, a collector of plague victims, and Lance a ‘large, handsome, and incredibly violent man’, who agree to join him – Lance ‘for the fighting’, and Robin for ‘the singing and dancing’. The Lady of the Lake (and her Laker Girls), Sir Bedevere, and Sir Dennis Galahad eventually join Arthur in his search for The Holy Grail.

The show also features a bevy of beautiful girls (of course), not to mention ‘cows, killer rabbits, and French people’. As The Sunday Times observed, Monty Python’s Spamalot ‘raises silliness to an art form’.