Last night I had the chance to see the Sheffield premiere of Spamalot. Spamalot is a musical based on the film ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ and has enjoyed successful runs on Broadway, the West End and many successful UK tours, with a whole host big names performing in the show, including Joe Pasquale, Jodie Prenger, Bonnie Langford, Warwick Davis and Hannah Waddingham. It’s currently touring the UK as well as being performed by many amateur societies up and down the country and this week was the turn of Sheffield’s Southey Musical Theatre Company.
Eric Idle’s book and lyrics are simply hilarious and Chris Badham’s direction along with a supremely talented cast bring out every ounce of comedy in the show. The show has a fantastic score which was a joy to hear by the fantastic band led by Kelli Edwards and the music just adds to the humour in the show. The set designed by Keith Herring is fantastic for the show and Christine Minott and Katie Rhodes got together some superb costumes. The show is lit fantastically by Tom Dyson and Sophie Marples and Paul Minott’s sound design ensures that almost every word is heard, although it was often difficult to understand what was being sung when the whole cast were singing together.
Mark Holmes leads the cast as King Arthur and is brilliant in the role. His vocals are fantastic and his characterisation of the role is spot on. Eli Ingle makes for a very likeable Patsy, tugging on the audience’s heart strings towards the end of the show. Mark Litherland was brilliant as the slightly camp Sir Robin, giving an outstanding performance of You Won’t Succeed on Broadway. Joe Cowling was perfectly dashing as Sir Galahad and his rendition of The Song That Goes Like This was lovely to listen to and truly hilarious.
Steve Pashley takes on the roles of Sir Bedevere and Prince Herbert and makes both roles suitably different and he performs each of them wonderfully. I didn’t even notice they were being played by the same performer for quite a while. Frank Badger does a great job in the roles of the Historian and Herbert’s Father. The sketch with him as Herbert’s Father and Paul Black and Stuart Whitworth as the guards is very funny.
For me, it was Richard Granger and Gina Townend who stole the show. Richard was hilarious in all of his roles (Sir Lancelot, French Taunter and Head Knight of Ni) and his adlibs were spot on, making cast members laugh at times. Gina’s vocals throughout the show were stunning and her riffs were very strong. She brought a certain air of grace and class to the role which worked brilliantly.
Southey Musical Theatre Company’s production of Spamalot is an absolute treat of a show and is definitely suitable for almost all ages. It gets as close to panto as it can without being panto and it’s definitely enjoyable for both Monty Python fans and people who’ve never seen anything from the Monty Python franchise, myself included.
Spamalot runs at Montgomery Theatre until Saturday 19th May 2018. Tickets are still available for all performances. Later in the year, Southey perform Avenue Q (23rd to 27th October at Theatre Deli) and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (5th to 9th December at The Montgomery Theatre).
Jacob Reviews Shows 