Arthurian knights storm the stage in NPSS production of Spamalot
The classic farcical gags of Monty Python are not dead yet in North Peace Secondary School’s family-friendly rendition of Spamalot, the written-for-Broadway musical interpretation of the Holy Grail.
Spamalot takes the audience on the hilarious journey of Arthur, King of the Britons, Defeater of the Saxons, and Sovereign of all England as he searches for knights who will join his court at Camelot, and his search for the Holy Grail.
Every December, the Musical Theatre class at NPSS does a musical, said Director Ted Sloan, who teaches Musical Theatre and Stagecraft. Sloan and David Price, the Musical Director, were inspired to choose Spamalot by NPSS’s acting class which did a farce show based on Greek mythology last year.
“Why don’t we do a funny play like that next year? So, we sat down and looked a plays, and found that Spamalot was available. Not only was it available,” said Sloan, “but there was a high school edition of it, that made sure it was friendly for audiences, really funny, and easy enough that the band could learn it.”
The risqué humour that Monty Python is known for has been taken out, Sloan said.
“But the things that we really enjoy about Monty Python, the farcical nature, the silliness, the coconut horses – all the really classic skits that we love are still there, and they’ve been lovingly changed by Eric Idle the original playwright, to make sure that everyone can enjoy it.”
As a musical, Spamalot is full of original songs written for the production, but also includes some from other Monty Python shows, such as the “very famous song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, which is no longer from Life of Brian, it’s been integrated in as a bunch of tap-dancing knights in a forest,” said Sloan.
“When Eric Idle of Monty Python sat down and wrote it, he said we’re going to take the Monty Python brand to Broadway, so they’re very self-aware songs. One of them is the Not Yet Dead song, so this is the classic skit where “I’m not dead yet” and we have fun with that. Then we also have the next song, that makes fun of Broadway, it’s this beautiful loving song and it’s called The Song that Goes Like This and goes through a lot of tropes, like The song goes on too long; Now you’re standing on my toes; and we threaten the conductor because it’s going on forever.”
“There’s a lot of fun like that.”
At one point in Act 2, one of the actresses stomps on stage, stops the entire production and says, “I haven’t been on stage for half an hour, I’m going to sing a song right now!” The production is full of moments like that, he said.
Like at the end of Act 1, following taunts by the French occupying a castle in England, and a failed attempt at storming the castle, Arthur and his knights try to sneak in with a Trojan Rabbit.
“They say Hey French people, come look at our beautiful rabbit. And we all sneak out, and then we have kind of a gag where all of our French people – we really laid into as much French as we could, we have baguettes, we have mime, we have someone dressed as the Eiffel Tower, we tried to tease the French by using some stereotypical French things, a la Monty Python – and they get defeated by the French.”
Each year, when Sloan does a musical, he likes to find some magic effect that he can add to the production.
“This year my magic effect is, how much can we get the audience involved? So, the audience actually saves the day, unwittingly. There’s a clue out in the audience, we talk to the audience, we get the clue, and it changes the end of the show. I think it’s just so much fun.”
Sloan, who grew up in Fort St. John and taught in school districts as far away as Ontario before returning home, is proud to be a part of the theatre program at NPSS.
“In this particular program, we have almost a hundred students – my stagecraft class is 40 people strong; my musical theatre has 45 students; and the pit band has 20. It’s quite amazing that we can get a tenth of the high school population involved in some way,” Sloan said.
“I was fortunate enough to be a professional actor for numerous years, and when I made the switch to becoming a teacher, I was unsure what that would look like – being a teacher and watching these kids experience things and grow, and they are far braver than I ever would be,” he said. “This is far more rewarding than my professional career was, it’s so exciting. I hope they remember the experience. It’s been a really fun time.”
Spamalot the Musical will be at the North Peace Cultural Centre December 1, 2, 7-9 starting at 7 p.m. School shows will take place on December 4-6 during the school day. Tickets are available for the evening shows from the Cultural Centre Box Office or online. The Box Office opens an hour before each performance.