SPAMALOT: MESSING WITH A SACRED COW

Shrink-wrapped gags, Monty-Python style.

Comments (0) By Steven Leigh Morris Wednesday, Jul 15 2009

But the larger issue resides in the motives of creation. Monty Python created comedy in reaction to, and as a comment on, the absurdities of life in Britain, and beyond. In the musical, King Arthur seeks — in addition to the Holy Grail — a way to get onto Broadway. So this is no longer a vicious comedy about the world, it’s a far gentler homage to Monty Python, filled with Sarah Palin jokes and mock Academy Awards. The idea has undergone a tectonic shift from being pointedly silly to generally silly — most clearly illustrated in the song, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” That song originated in The Life of Brian, and was sung by Christ and his fellow condemned, as they hung on their crosses. Here, it’s sung by Arthur because he’s lost in “a very expensive forest.” That’s a very big plunge in the quality and purpose of the humor.

What was satire is now just parody, and this is just another Broadway show, shrink-wrapping its gags the way Hollywood studios often do good ideas. These are really the aesthetics of marketing. The result is far more popular than penetrating, interesting or important.

Joan Marcus

King Arthur and his Patsy

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The company is unimpeachable, as is Casey Nicholaw’s splendidly stupid choreography and Tim Hatley’s deliberately cheesy set and costumes.

MONTY PYTHON’SSPAMALOT | By ERIC IDLE and JOHN DU PREZ | Presented by CENTER THEATRE GROUP at the AHMANSON THEATRE, 135 N. Grand Ave., dwntwn.; through September 6.

(213) 972-4400.