Theatre News and Reviews

The brightly colored coils of Monty Python had Broadway in a stranglehold all week, as theatre fans, critics and professionals awaited the March 17 opening of Spamalot, the musical which all of the above—even the critics—hoped would provide The Street and the season with the kick in the pants it desperately needed.

Once the confetti settled, it was clear that the critics did their part, praising the musical for its silliness (no review passed without employing this word or a variation thereof), comedic skill and intentionally shoddy production values, even if more than one critic surmised that the highly self-referential show was at heart something a bit like a very expensive edition of Forbidden Broadway. As for the audience, all observers reported them to be deliriously happy—the Python fanatics, and those uninitiated in the famed comedy troupe’s routines, alike. And the producers? Well, they were happiest of all! According to Variety, the show opened with a whopping advance of $18 million, taking in more than $300,000 in sales each day. That’s even better than the record set by The Producers, which opened with $15.6 million in sales.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 19th, 2005 at 12:30 am and is filed under Theatre, Broadway. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.