Spamalot at the Palace Theatre. A surreal day out in London part two.

I'm really embarrassed to say I went to this. Over the years I have been appalled at the number of West End shows using established brand names: Abba, Queen, Dirty dancing and various others. I have also always been suspicious of fans of TV shows going to see plays just because actor x was in show y. And yet, here I was watching a musical based on one of my favourite shows (Monty Python), starring Peter Davison (from Doctor Who). I felt positively dirty for doing this.

Having purchased a seat in the balcony of the palace theatre, so high up you should get an oxygen mask, and so steep you feel like at any moment you are going to tip to your death, I settled down to an enjoyable couple of hours. This is an odd one though, it has a great film script as a basis (which it lifts from liberally) and at least two cracking musical numbers ready to go (Knights of the Round Table and Always Look on the bright side of Life), and yet it didn't quite hit the mark.

The show as a spectacle is excellent. Everything from video projection, spiralling scenery and expensive trees, to dance set pieces, excellent special effects and rollicking musical hall song pastiches. There was a large live orchestra and the performance of the cast was to a very high standard but it just didn't work for one big reason. Harry Enfield once said that comedy songs just are not generally funny, and it was the songs I thought that let this down. Most of the numbers were designed to make fun of musical theatre, but this has been done before (The Producers), not forgetting that most musicals are high camp extravaganzas anyway. Southpark the Musical also did this, and I wonder why everybody lines up to kick a victim that is already down. The staging had a heavy American influence (maybe because Eric Idle lives there) which seemed at odds to the peculiarly English humour of the Pythons material.

Where the show did succeed was in managing to stage scenes from the film, the Black Knight, the bunny, the hand of god, which must have seemed impossible to stage. The cast were asked to sing, dance, and perform comedy all at the same time and they did so with real professionalism. Amy Field was an excellent singer, but it was her Character of 'The lady in the Lake' that got lumbered with most of the annoying pastiche duties.

Peter Davison has some of the same qualities of Graham Chapman, such as an ability to project a person just confused with the modern world, and so he seemed an inspired piece of casting for Arthur. He did a capable job of the comedy, and looked nimble enough in the dance routines (although his involvement was limited in these compared to everyone else). His singing though sounded a little like he was struggling, well, compared to all these young identikit uber-performers that made up the rest of the cast. Generally though he stood up well as the focus point of the story.

I did laugh, but less than when watching the film or reading the script. Do these first, before going to see this. I saw Les Miserables at the Palace theatre, and I would go to see this ahead of Spamalot. All in all I saw three films surreal films and a musical trying to be surreal today, but how can something be surreal when it is based on sketches we know so well? Right, I'm off to find a shrubbery.