Saturday, February 1, 2014

Music Review: **Monty Python's Spamelot, original cast recording

I was very much enjoying this CD until the end.  The music was actually funny.  Looking at the picture of the cast in the enclosed pamphlet was enough to make one laugh.  I especially enjoyed “The song that goes like this.”  It was clever in its parody of the musical genre.  I liked the reaction of the singers after they did the habitual key change. "I should have stayed in D"  Funny. I also liked how the song went from “the song that goes like this” to “the song that goes too long.”  It was very clever.
 
Lady of the Lake and the “Laker Girls” was very fun.  More for me because I HATE THE LAKERS.  Every year they do in the Jazz, and they get every call, and it’s a travesty for the game, and yes, as the ref that was caught cheating indicated, there is a bias for the Lakers coming down from the front office.  Any way, I wish the parody had been for the team and not the cheerleaders (I have a friend whose daughter was a Laker Girl.)  At least I get some satisfaction.  I would have much rather seen Kobe Bryant stuffed however.
 
The Lady of the Lake, Sara Ramirez, was very good and very enjoyable.  Her reaction to being off stage for too long, when she is the “Diva’ is humorous. “What ever happened to my Part” continues with the parody of musical theater that makes this CD fun.  That the “grail” is King Arthur proposing to her is amusing.  Off course there is a big wedding scene.
 
However there were a couple parts of this CD that made it offensive; although the word they use is “controversial.”  One is a story that indicates for a show to make it on Broadway it must include “Jews.”  That went a bit far for me.  The other is that Lancelot is gay and takes a lover, Herbert.  Now that goes way beyond being entertaining.  These too parts could have been left out, and the show had been more enjoyable as a result.  
So in the end, in an effort to try to get the misery right (be politically correct) the destroyed their story and is was just gobblety-gook.  I  guess that is what Monty Python is known for.

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