SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Joined: 12/31/69
Mr Roxy
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/17/03
#2re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 10:41pmPython Humor meets musical.
I want to write music. I want to sit down right now at my piano and write a song that people will listen to and remember and do the same thing every morning...for the rest of my life. - Jonathan Larson. Tick, Tick...BOOM!
Ladyofthe Lake
Leading Actor Joined: 1/1/05
#3re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 10:43pm
A question that just *begs* for people to post nasty comments.
And they will.
#4re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 10:53pmHoly Grail with songs. I watched the movie the week after I saw the show and it's surprising how similar they are. But, the songs are great.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#5re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 10:55pmI disagree with you Lady. I believe it to be a legitimate question, and it was not posted to fish for "nasty comments."
#6re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 10:57pmI don't think Lady was trying to say you did anything wrong. She is just making a point. It isn't something to agree or disagree on...but people usually do and most likely will post nasty comments regardless.
Ladyofthe Lake
Leading Actor Joined: 1/1/05
#7re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 10:58pm
I'm not saying it wasn't a legitimate question, or that you were fishing for nasty comments. I'm just saying it's likely to elicit them anyway. People who don't care for the show have taken advantage of less "tempting" openings than that to express their negative opinions. It's unfortunate, but true.
Ladyofthe Lake
Leading Actor Joined: 1/1/05
#8re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 11:00pm
Whoa, ShuQ...talk about being on the same wavelength at the same time! 
Leading Actor Joined: 12/31/69
#9re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 11:01pm
Gotcha. Sorry.
That's the problem with electronic communication -- misinterpretations can be easily made.
Back to the original question...
#10re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 11:03pm
I think I would define Spamalot as Broadway Musical through Monty Python tinted glasses.
As someone who has always adored the movie Holy Grail I was kind of worried I wouldn't like the musical of it but then I saw it and I was hooked, I think its fantastic. Its true to the MP style but it isn't a direct clone of the movie. Although of course it has all the main, well known and much loved parts, it has so many Broadway jokes and quirks to it that it becomes more than just a movie adapted for the stage.
And hang on, when did you win the discus?
Matt_G
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/1/04
#11re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 11:04pmI would describe it as a show that, when you look closely, is about as original as GOOD VIBRATIONS and almost as good.
"Noah, someday we'll talk again. But there's things we'll never say. That sorrow deep inside you. It inside me, too. And it never go away. You be okay. You'll learn how to lose things..."
Ladyofthe Lake
Leading Actor Joined: 1/1/05
#12re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 11:06pm
Not a problem. I should have been more clear. I went for "short and snappy," which isn't always the best way to go.
As for an answer to the question...if I had to make a stab at it, I'd say "Monty Python meets Forbidden Broadway."
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#13re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 11:41pmI'd call it a vaudeville-esque "entertainment," not a full-fledged book musical.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
wickedrentq
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/6/04
#14re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 11:41pmoh well, Monty Python meets Forbidden Broadway is exactly what I was gonna say LOTL. Good call.
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
#15re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 11:41pm
Are all of the snappy comments about those of us who dislike Spamalot? There are various reasons many of which have been spelled out in detail, why some of us dislike the show.
That said I see Spamalot as a well intentioned blockbuster show, with excellent talent and source material that fails in some ways to mix all of those elements into a cohesive whole.
I think the "Forbidden Broadway" meets Monty Python discription is most apt, but somehow it loses the full experience of either once combined.
Is that a "nasty comment" because I honestly am not trying to be nasty?
I stand corrected, you are as vapid as they say.
#16re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 11:42pmSilly.
BSoBW2: I punched Sondheim in the face after I saw Wicked and said, "Why couldn't you write like that!?"
#17re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/19/05 at 11:46pmBravo Margo, that seems to be it. Very entertaining as that style of entertainment as well, yet just not quite there in the end as a stand alone show.
I stand corrected, you are as vapid as they say.
jmnpublications
Broadway Star Joined: 4/2/04
#19re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/20/05 at 1:01amI'll define Spamalot as... 2005 Tony Award for Best Musical!
http://www.glamsmash.com/ - Glamsmash Productions, a video production company in the heart of New York City
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#20re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/20/05 at 6:47am
I'd define it as a traditional musical - a traditional musical circa 1925 before SHOWBOAT changed everything - back when the "plot" was barely discernable - just a device to string together a series of comedy skits and songs, showcasing the particular talnts of a popular comedy performers.
Kind of like the Marx Brothers musicals.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#21re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/20/05 at 6:59amAnyone else care to express their view?
Ladyofthe Lake
Leading Actor Joined: 1/1/05
#22re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/20/05 at 7:14am
"Are all of the snappy comments about those of us who dislike Spamalot? There are various reasons many of which have been spelled out in detail, why some of us dislike the show."
You (the general "you") are entitled to do that. And I'm entitled to make what I think is a pretty mild "snappy comment" about it, too. 
Negative comments, in and of themselves, are not necessarily nasty, particularly when they're well thought out. However, many of them have not only been nasty, they've been repeated over and over and over, sometimes for no other apparent reason than to "rain on the parade" of someone who posted that they enjoyed the show. That was more what I was talking about.
But in the end, people can post what they want. {shrug}
Updated On: 5/20/05 at 07:14 AM
popcultureboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/23/03
#23re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/20/05 at 7:16amIt's a glorious mess, that's how I would define it. The increasingly desperate hoops the plot jumps through to get some kind of resolution may prove tiresome to some but Spamalot never claimed to be the best or the most original new musical around. It's a laugh riot and it has some great songs in it.
Nothing precious, plain to see, don't make a fuss over me. Not loud, not soft, but somewhere inbetween. Say sorry, just let it be the word you mean.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#24re: SPAMALOT -- How would you define it?
Posted: 5/20/05 at 10:14am
Jon you hit it RIGHT on the head! I always wondered what those old shows were like, with the latest soprano doing two numbers and a comic tossing in topical humor and well-worn bits from his act and a revolving door of dance specialties and novelty acts all thrown into a "plot" that wouldn't fill a half-hour sitcom.
Now I know. And I thought it was hysterical. And I'll be interested to see how the well-bashed score holds up in 5 or 10 years. I'm anxious to hear Spelling Bee and Piazza, but right now I'm fine with "Lot over Rot".
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