★★★★☆
With its absurd, flamboyant, and often self-referential humour, UCL Musical Theatre Society’s production of Monty Python’s Spamalot left the audience in stitches as it traversed a tale of heroism, Trojan rabbits, and shrubbery.
The musical, set in the fabulous Camelot, Britain, follows King Arthur and his knights of the round table who set out in search of the Holy Grail after an imperative from God is beamed through the theatre’s loudspeakers.
Directed by Mary McHarg and produced by Nicole Chan, the production sustained an exorbitant energy level from overture to curtain call.
The production’s lead, Gabriella Roe as the Lady of the Lake, stole the show with an exceptional vocal performance, imbued with richness and technical precision.
While there was no shortage of high quality singing, her Act 2 rendition of “Diva’s Lament (What Ever Happened to My Part?)” propelled the music of the show from that of a university production to something that seemed genuinely professional.
Roe was supported, of course, by the band who were flawless throughout. Not to be overlooked, some of them donned pink princess cone hats in the orchestra pit, a touch that exhibited the attention to detail and was just very, very sweet.
A similarly remarkable performance was Nikki Khalatbari, who was good as pre-Galahad Dennis, a political radical who initially lambasts Arthur’s (Tyler Liskowich) authority by claiming he has no right to rule without an electoral mandate.
But, she was even better as the French Taunter, who blocks the path of Arthur and his knights from their tower in a castle. Khalatbari had a fabulous French accent that was very authentic, very intelligible, and very funny.
The protagonists then fail to breach the castle when they forget to hide inside their Trojan horse-styled wooden rabbit – a very artistic stage crew creation.
This was the standout scene in the show: the staging, the lighting, and the comedic timing had the audience in fits of laughter. Khalatbari was supported by the baguette-wielding, beret-wearing ensemble who were brilliant no matter what roles they assumed.
They were particularly strong in the opening number, “Finland/Fisch Slapping Song”, where they mishear the narrator’s opening speech about England.
For what was presumably a first attempt at tap dancing, the ensemble were similarly crisp with their flaps and shuffles. Only a set of wings at the end of “Always Look on the Bright Side” of life audibly missed multiple sounds (but the crew are maybe also just a little unfortunate that this particular reviewer knows how to tap dance — I’m unsure that many others in the audience would have noticed).
Arthur and the knights did a great job at maintaining characterisation that made them distinguishable from each other, while Frankie Keller did a particularly fantastic portrayal of Patsy alongside them, marked by distinctive and compelling physicality.
There were some noticeable issues with the radio mics during Act 1 which made it hard to hear some of the actors at points. Suffering from success, sometimes the actors were drowned out purely because the audience was laughing so hard. However, these seemed to have been smoothed out by Act 2.
The lighting team, led by Webbe Chu, were fantastic. The rainbow pride lights when Lancelot is comes out as gay and the whimsical spinning gobos highlighting the mystical appearances of the Lady of the Lake were particular highlights that really gave the show an authentic touch. It was only marred by a mysterious blackout in the middle of a song in Act 2.
Ultimately, Spamalot was a joyous and lively exploration of heroism that was a triumphant culmination of Musical Theatre Soc’s great work in Blooms this year and the cast and crew have a lot to proud of.