Even Stephen Curry’s King Arthur can’t save stale Spamalot, plus other new shows this week

Sydney Event Centre, October 15. Until October 18

There’s a scene early in Spamalot, where a man wanders the streets of a plague-ridden town in medieval England pushing a cart piled with lifeless bodies, shouting “Bring out your dead!” Lancelot enters dragging a body, which struggles out of his clutches crying “I am not dead yet”. Cue music for a jaunty song and dance number.

“I’m not dead yet” is one of those classic Monty Python lines, greeted by laughs and cheers by a hyped-up fandom on the first night. But is there still life in the old thing? I’m not convinced.

Spamalot, subtitled “A new musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, was created by Monty Python original Eric Idle in 2006. It had a successful Broadway run, scooping up a fistful of Tony Awards. This Australian production, produced and directed by Drew Anthony, is a competent rehash starring Stephen ‘The Castle’ Curry as King Arthur and an enthusiastic all-singing, all-dancing ensemble.

The plot is an undergrad rewrite of the Arthurian legend. God commands King Arthur to find the Holy Grail. Arthur recruits a motley posse of knights and, after a glow-up at Camelot, they grab their coconut shells (clip-clop, clip-clop) and set out. The quest takes them to France, where they meet flatulent locals, knights who say “Ni!”, and a Black Knight who is harder to kill than a cockroach. But do they find the grail?

Curry is not an obvious choice as lead but makes a good fist of the preening role of Arthur, despite his tortuous English accent. His sidekick Patsy, played by Jamie Rolton, who also choreographs the show, frequently upstages the king with his well-timed quips and genial stage presence. Marney ‘Titanique’ McQueen sings her heart out as Lady of the Lake, leaning into the diva energy of Whatever Happened To My Part?, while Gareth Isaac as Sir Robin bubbles with showtime glee while singing You Won’t Survive On Broadway Without Jews. Awkward.

Drew Anthony’s design concept is a deliberate collision of low-fi production values and technological wizardry. The costumes are straight from the dress-up box, and dad made the props, while the backdrop (by Travis Badge of Aquixel) transports us to rolling hills and luxuriant forests, and even provides a fully digital cast member, the Black Knight, yelling “’tis but a flesh wound” as it spurts bloody pixels.

It’s not the cast’s fault that this show fails to dazzle: the gags are desperately dated and the music is derivative. That is not a guarantee of failure in itself – lots of musical theatre shows thrive on in-jokes and self-parody – but the many compromises, including canned music and a terrible venue, do nothing to lift the raw material out of its nostalgic soup. Without the bite of up-to-date satire and the zing of in-the-moment comic improv, Spamalot has no teeth. This one’s strictly for the fans.

Spamalot also shows at Coliseum Theatre, Rooty Hill from October 22-25. 

Hayes Theatre, October 15, until November 8.

It’s official: you can now make a musical from anything, even a subject more suited to a trashy teen flick. And if you’re as talented a first-time director as Chiara Assetta, you can daub enough lipstick and mascara on it to disguise its many defects.

Preston Max Allen wrote the whole shebang: book, music and lyrics, and perhaps he should have shared the workload. The book is zany and sometimes quite funny, the lyrics intermittently share those qualities, and then there’s the music. Gulp. What do you say about an 18-song show in which only one tune differentiates itself from the rest? Can you imagine the inanity of Frederick Loewe writing the same musical style for Higgins as Eliza in My Fair Lady? That’s precisely what Allen does here for all but one character.

The Tigers are a high school cheerleading squad that botched last year’s comp, and have assembled at the home of their captain, Riley (Brianna Bishop), for a sleepover to bond and rehearse. More is afoot than pizza and pompoms, however.

Reginald Theatre, October 14. Until October 31

Theatre can be trick, truth, ritual or mirror. Cruise is all of those and more. Penned by British playwright Jack Holden in 2021, it’s a love letter to London’s energised gay scene of the 1980s, to those who died of AIDS and to the “veterans” who survived.

It’s also a 100-minute play for one actor, and Fraser Morrison triumphs in this Fruit Box Theatre production, which, premiering at KXT on Broadway in Sydney last year, has rightfully received another airing.

The play is written in unmetered verse that, like Steven Berkoff’s finest work, catches the cadences of assorted idioms, without sounding forced. Holden’s exquisitely structured, multilayered story is derived from his experience volunteering for an LGBTQ helpline, and so the first of Morrison’s 31 characters (!) is indeed called Jack. He’s taking calls from people who are troubled, confused, depressed or barmy, and is too young, inexperienced and undertrained to deal with some – like the one who’s cutting himself while talking.

Sydney Event Centre, October 15. Until October 18

There’s a scene early in Spamalot, where a man wanders the streets of a plague-ridden town in medieval England pushing a cart piled with lifeless bodies, shouting “Bring out your dead!” Lancelot enters dragging a body, which struggles out of his clutches crying “I am not dead yet”. Cue music for a jaunty song and dance number.

“I’m not dead yet” is one of those classic Monty Python lines, greeted by laughs and cheers by a hyped-up fandom on the first night. But is there still life in the old thing? I’m not convinced.

Spamalot, subtitled “A new musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture Monty Python and the Holy Grail”, was created by Monty Python original Eric Idle in 2006. It had a successful Broadway run, scooping up a fistful of Tony Awards. This Australian production, produced and directed by Drew Anthony, is a competent rehash starring Stephen ‘The Castle’ Curry as King Arthur and an enthusiastic all-singing, all-dancing ensemble.