https:\/\/us.atgtickets.com\/whats-on\/san-francisco\/<\/a>.<\/p>\nMajor Attaway, a Broadway vet known for his role as The Genie in \u201cAladdin,\u201d is another massive highlight in the role of King Arthur in this Camelot-inspired tale focused on finding the Holy Grail. Attaway manages to make the part his own, nicely mixing the kingly with the comical in ways that delight scene after scene. He\u2019s a master of turning small moments into big laughs, using slight physical comedy \u2014 and big facial expressions \u2014 to captivate a crowd.<\/p>\n
Overall, the cast is fabulous \u2014 nary a weak link in the bunch \u2014 with each of the actors thriving in the trademark chaos, fun wordplay and abundant miscommunication that this play has been serving up ever since it debuted on Broadway back in 2005.<\/p>\n
Yet, it\u2019s doing so in some clever new ways these days.<\/p>\n
What we witnessed on opening night of the San Francisco run was not the original production, which went on to be nominated for 14 Tony Awards and ended up winning three \u2014 including for Best Musical.<\/p>\n
Rather, this is the tour of the 2023 revival, which \u2014 under the guidance of acclaimed director and choreographer Josh Rhodes \u2014 modernized the musical by upping the pop-culture references and stage designs while still keeping the storyline firmly set in medieval times.<\/p>\n
Of course, this is not a play that requires much tinkering. It was brilliant right from the start, especially in the way it \u2014 as the play\u2019s tagline proudly boasts \u2014 \u201c(loving) ripped off\u201d the 1975 British comedy classic \u201cMonty Python and the Holy Grail.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, unlike so many of the dreadful film-to-play productions that have followed over the last two decades, \u201cSpamalot\u201d never came across like merely a stage adaption. Instead, it was more like \u201cMonty Python and the Holy Grail\u201d was more of a launching off point for something that felt wholly \u2014 well, OK, partly \u2014 original.<\/p>\n
Pretty much all the best gags that you\u2019ll find in the movie are still in the play, which Monty Python\u2019s brilliant Eric Idle wrote the book and lyrics for as well as co-wrote the music with veteran film scorer John Du Prez (who we otherwise know from the underrated 1990 movie \u201cTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles\u201d).<\/p>\n
Yes, that includes Not Dead Fred (\u201cI\u2019m not dead. I\u2019m getting better!\u201d); those infuriating taunting French soldiers; the Knights Who Say \u201cNi!\u201d; the \u201cmost foul, cruel and bad-tempered\u201d bunny of all time, etc.<\/p>\n
And all these bits work, especially when they are often set to (or lead into) songs that are as ludicrously funny and wonderfully self-aware as the plot twists themselves, as we follow King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table on their quest.<\/p>\n
The musical runs roughly 2 1\/2 hours (with an intermission), yet it doesn\u2019t feel nearly that long. Credit that to a storyline that keeps things zippy and songs that work on so many levels. In many ways, it\u2019s even more of an ode to Broadway itself than it is to a straightforward take on the classic Monty Python film.<\/p>\n
And maybe that\u2019s why the Lady of the Lake character is so incredibly vital to the success of the musical. She\u2019s the one who is at the lead for so many of the best in-jokes about Broadway, whether that\u2019s by combining forces with Sir Galahad (played by Leo Roberts) for the goof on cliche over-the-top anthems with \u201cThe Song That Goes Like This\u201d or bemoaning a lack of stage time on \u201cDiva\u2019s Lament.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Amanda Robles nails all of it, which is quite an accomplishment for someone who is making her national tour debut. Given what we saw on opening night at the Golden Gate, however, it\u2019s easy to picture Robles scoring many more prime Broadway roles in the years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Any production of \u201cSpamalot\u201d is only as good as its Lady of the Lake. Fortunately, the production Bay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[184,7,181,395,101,396,103,102,104,106,105,1058,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-208518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-peninsula","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-county","14":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","15":"tag-san-francisco-news","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-headlines","18":"tag-sf-news","19":"tag-theater","20":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}