Theatre Royal: Looking on the bright side of life

The irresistable lunacy of Monty Python’s Spamalot gallops into the Theatre Royal Brighton

Lovingly ripped off from the classic film comedy Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Spamalot is a kind-of new musical with a book by Eric Idle and an entirely new score for the new production (well, almost), created by Eric Idle and John Du Prez.
Spamalot tells the legendary tale of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table and features a bevy (or possibly a brace) of beautiful show girls and witch burnings (cancelled due to health and safety) not to mention cows, killer rabbits and French people. The show features fantastic tunes more magical than a Camelot convention, including ‘He Is Not Dead Yet’, ‘Knights Of The Round Table’ and of course the Nation’s Favourite Comedy Song (Reader’s Digest Poll 2010 – before it went bust), ‘Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life’.

The 2015 Spamalot UK tour follows the hugely successful run at The Playhouse in London, directed by Christopher Luscombe. During the run at The Playhouse, there were 18 onstage moustache incidents, three suspected cases of swine flu (French pigs!), one outbreak of nits and 87 pairs of coconuts used.
Joe Pasquale plays King Arthur. One of the country’s most popular funny men for over 20 years, Joe has appeared in six Royal Variety Performances, the UK tour of Mel Brooks’ The Producers, The Wizard Of Oz and Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead and stand-up shows including the 1996 £1 million tour Live And Squeaky, Joe Pasquale Summer 2013 Tour and playing super-sleuth Sherlock Holmes in Ha, Ha, Holmes. On screen he voiced characters for the Hollywood films Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties and Horton Hears A Who!, hosted ITV1’s The Price Is Right and An Audience With Joe Pasquale and guest presented Channel 4’s Paul O’Grady Show. Joe won the 2004 series of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and appeared on ITV1’s Dancing On Ice in 2013, before returning again for the final series alongside his Spamalot co-star Todd Carty, and Bonnie Langford. Todd Carty makes a welcome return as Patsy.

A household favourite while playing Tucker Jenkins in Grange Hill and Tucker’s Luck (when he was just knee-high to a serf), then as Mark Fowler in Eastenders, Todd returns to the latest UK tour after appearing on the final series of ITV1’s Dancing On Ice. Sarah Earnshaw, who recently appeared in Wicked and Scrooge in the West End, stars as The Lady of The Lake.
Spamalot runs at the Theatre Royal Brighton from Mon 30 March to Saturday 4 April 2015.
www.atgtickets.com/brighton / 0844 871 7650 (booking fees apply)