Brief comments on SPAMALOT

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 7:33pm

And now for something completely unbiased. Still the funniest musical comedy on Broadway, the perfect cure for the seasonal affective disorder from which I suffer.

Saw it twice with the original cast (sans Hank Azaria, who was filming his TV show both times), as well the Harry Groener/Lauren Kennedy cast. Groener's Arthur was a big departure from Tim Curry's. Groener actually played the part, as opposed to Curry who phoned it in both times.

And now, time #4. Jonathan Hadary and Hannah Waddingham. Hadary is quite fine, better than Curry, not as good as Groener. Hadaray has the perfect edge to the part - he's a wistful Arthur who loves (and can't believe) everything that's goign on.

Waddingham is much closer to the Sara Ramirez (who also walked through both performances) mold. She's big voiced, voluptuous, and quite, quite sexy. She also delivers a stupendously sung performance. And how do you know she's already been impacted by American-New York culture? Her scatting during "Knights of the Round Table" includes a riff of "877 393 4448!" from the OptOnline/Cablevision commercial.

Christopher Sieber is at his over-acty, histrionic best. He's an asset to the show and I can't wait for Shrek.

Rick Holmes, Tom Deckman, Brad Oscar, and David Hibbard are also quite fine.

Clay Aiken makes an impressive Broadway debut - nothing to write home over, but he doesn't make a fool of himself, either. They've added a lot for him to sing - a riff of "Lovely Spam, Wonderful Spam" during the "Spam, Spam, Spam" section of "Knights" - I distinctly remember missing that line before, since it's such a Python staple. They've also added a verse in "All for One," which clearly defines Sir Robin as a wannabe Broadway star. Something about "when I get on stage, I'm the idol of my age," ironic and quite amusing. All he has to do is lose the constipated look on his face when he's doing the bottle dance.

Ensemble is strong, and the show itself is in fantastic shape. The tempos are still too slow (another thing I pointed out on the last go-round).

Just a note about audience. I thought I was going to catch Menopause. I've never seen so many middle aged women in one room in my entire life. And I don't know why they find it so impressive that "My Clay does 3 different accents!!!"

Oh, and Tyra Banks was there, too. Fun afternoon.


Updated On: 2/2/08 at 07:33 PM

[adamgreer]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 7:53pm

I have heard nothing but very positive things about Hannah Waddingham. She's apparently much better than Ramirez' other two replacements. She certainly looks good in the posters and ads.

I'll have to try and catch her. Anyone know how long she's here for?

[StageFan2]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 8:04pm

Thanks YankeeFan - Your review was one I was waiting to read. I'm glad to know Spamalot is still one of the funniest, okay - the funniest show on Broadway. I'm also happy you didn't catch menopause - nothing worse then getting all hot-flashy when you're enjoying a good show. Glad you had a fun afternoon.

[hermionejuliet]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 8:10pm

Thanks for the review Yankee!

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 8:46pm

Thanks for commenting. I've been considered going back to revisit the show (last saw it in December of 2005) recently and I'm glad to hear that the current cast is enjoyable.

[being.jeremiah]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 8:52pm

One note: it's Jonathan Hadary, not Jonathan Hadaray.

[insertclevernamehere]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 8:54pm

You know what's going to be great? When miss Tyra starts singing Diva's Lament on her show as you know she will.

[bohemianqueen]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 9:19pm

check out Hannah's version of 'Diva's Lament' - the last line she sings 'my part' she takes it up the octave!! go Hannah!

[HeddaG]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 9:25pm

Thanks for the review Yankeefan007. I've actually got tickets for this in 3 weeks. Saw the original cast and bought tickets when I heard Chris Sieber was back in it. Looking forward to it now. Glad I'm going midweek and not on the weekend. Rarely go to matinees - not just Spamalot - but the audiences always seem to skew older or primarily women. Which is horribly snotty of me - considering I'm older and a woman. But what the hell.

[broadwayfan7]

Posted: 2/2/08 at 10:10pm

Sounds like you had a great time!

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/3/08 at 1:34pm

I always have a great time at Spamalot.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 1:05pm

bump

[broadwayjim42]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 1:18pm

Both Hannah and Chris were at the autograph table at Kids' Night yesterday. Hannah is gorgeous and Chris was a riot...they hadve a Spamalot scavenger hunt and my prize was a sampler CD, which I had them both sign. Chris signed his by pointing an arrow to his name, saying "I'm on that" and giggling maniacally. My daughter won a stuffed killer rabbit and I'm extremely envious.

I really want to get back to this now and hope I can convince my kids to go in April...unfortunately, Chris is only there through March. I wonder if he heard me saying "aw crap" when he said that.

[worrell4077]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 3:28pm

I went last night and saw it and Hannah was out and her understudy was okay. Was not thrilled with Clay. To me, he made Robin more flamboyant. Everyone else was great especially Chris Sieber. Rick Holmes was hysterical as Lancelot and he did this great adlib during the Knight of Ni scene where when he said that they were now the Knights who say..., at the end of it he added in a reference to Hillary, Obama, and Huckabee.

I also have to say, so many young girls there and during the swallow scene before Rick came in, I hear from behind me, "Is that Clay?"

[MassiveMeGo]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 6:55pm

Just curious, worrell, do you equate flamboyant with coward? I thought Clay played up the scared ****less angle that Sir Robin is supposed to characterize.

I found his younger and more wide eyed portrayal of Robin to be fresh, funny and more believable than DHP's stonefaced delivery. His Foot Stomping Jewish shimmy was very authentic and, dare I say it, sexy.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 7:33pm

Actually, he looked terribly constipated through the whole bottle dance.

[MassiveMeGo]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 8:29pm

So do all the others. Tom Deckman is the worst with that intense concentration look but he's otherwise adorable.

[JEK216]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 10:03pm

I would imagine it would take a lot of effort and concentration to do that dance, even for a trained dancer. But I suppose a trained dancer would be able to smile, and look relaxed doing it. Does Tom Deckman have dance training? I know Clay does not.

[MassiveMeGo]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 11:31pm

Hannah Waddingham was out again tonight.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 11:38pm

Oh, dear. I just got tickets for Friday night (thanks, TDF!!) to see this, mostly because I want to see Hannah Waddingham. I hope she is better by then. I have no desire to listen to Emily Hsu scream her way through the role again.

[Mythus]

Posted: 2/6/08 at 11:45pm

Tom was in the ensemble of Good Vibrations - were there any ensemble dances in that? He doesn't strike me as, say, the classically-trained type - his Not Dead Fred dance is a good example of that. Yes, it is supposed to be a lot of flailing, but when Christian Borle did the part, I remember his dancing being much more...well, dance-like.

I'm sure Tom has some dance skills, at any rate. Though he certainly lucked out, getting the one track in the show that really doesn't require being in any big ensemble dances (besides You Won't Succeed - he's not in Round Table or Find Your Grail). I would chalk up any funny faces in You Won't Succeed to exhaustion. For the minstrels, that number is non-stop running around, prop-grabbing, wig-changing, running-across-the-stage craziness.

Just because:



Tom's in the back, in the purple shirt. Call me crazy, but that looks like dancing. Updated On: 2/6/08 at 11:45 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 6:46am

Tom was fine (a bit too fey), but he did not look like Clay when he was dancing. Clay's facial contortions were like something I've never seen.

[gilliane]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 7:19am

Anyone know why Hannah was out? Is she back? I saw it Sunday and she wasn't there, and I want to go again before Sieber leaves in March and I'm curious as to my chances of seeing her.

While this cast doesn't match up to the original overall (especially to Tim Curry and the wonderful Sara Ramirez), I did think they were all very good, and liked Rick Holmes more than Hank Azaria. I went in liking Clay, but he was actually better than I expected. I thought his facial expressions were appropriate, and no more over the top than Sieber's. And as a Brit I was skeptical of his ability to do the accents required, but he had them down pat.

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 7:55am

Curry and Ramirez slogged through the damn thing both times I saw it.

Well, at least they were present.

[gilliane]

Posted: 2/7/08 at 8:04am

Seriously? Interesting how people see things so differently. Ramirez and Sieber were my favourites from the original cast both times I saw it, but I thought DHP and Curry were also excellent. I actually thought Jonathon Hadary was the weakest link in the current cast, though still good.