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Talk about saving the
best for last…
After struggling for months to find a suitable upper-camp show for 2006,
considering Evita, Jekyll & Hyde and others, I was pleased to
discover in March that the sheet music for Spamalot, in which I had
been deeply interested since the previous summer, had finally been
published. I bought the book and the cast album, saw the show, loved it,
found it perfectly suitable for camp, and with great delight and
enthusiasm, not to mention relief, penned it in as my final Pontiac
production.
I have always loved Monty Python and especially Holy Grail. The most
popular current show on Broadway, Spamalot was funny, energetic, and
irreverent, combining some of the best Python bits from the film with
modern American-style parody; the music was tuneful, very appealing and not
too challenging, the show would be easy to adapt and stage, and there was
really nothing objectionable about it that I could think of. It seemed like
a perfect show for camp. I immediately notified the directors of the choice
and soon began practicing the music, writing the adaptation, and buying
props, such as the coconut shells, Holy Hand Grenade and Killer Rabbit
puppet.
In early May, two months after I first notified them about it, the
directors expressed their wish to veto Spamalot in favor of a more
conventional musical, something from the 1940s or '50s of the sort that
high schools typically perform (i.e., the work of Messrs. Rodgers and
Hammerstein which I, as they know, find enormously unappealing). Given past
history, I can't say the revelation was entirely surprising, though
I was still taken aback by it as I had been unable to discern for myself
any reasonable potential objection to Spamalot. I won't discuss here
the reasons they gave me for wanting this change, except to say they made
very little sense.
There has existed for some years
a disparity of sorts between my vision of a unique, off-beat and
challenging theatre arts program for Pontiac, and the camp directors'
desire to market the camp as having a much more conservative, generic and
conventional one. It has always been a conflict without animosity or
enmity, an "agreement to disagree" if you will, as we have always
been able to compromise and the program has been consistently successful.
This time, I thought they went a bit too far. Fortunately, though, and as
usual, cooler heads prevailed and they withdrew the request, and I was able
to proceed with Spamalot as planned. I have never been wrong about a
show, and I was certainly right about Spamalot.
2006's senior boys division was, to say the least, thoroughly enthusiastic
about this show; they'd been anticipating doing Spamalot since the
previous summer. Theatre veteran Eric Thurm, like myself a huge Python fan
(he & I were quoting various Python bits to each other all summer), was
perfect for the part of King Arthur. He knew all the lines by heart, even
adding some from both the film and stage show that my adapted script had
omitted. So great was his enthusiasm for the material that during
rehearsals I often had to rein him in from doing everyone else's lines as
well as his own. This was his first central leading role since 2002's The
Prince of Egypt, although he had had memorable character roles in
several other shows, most notably that of Mr. Mushnik in Little
Shop of Horrors. Eric didn't have a great singing voice (which the role
doesn't really require anyway), but he had tremendous stage presence and a
great sense of humor, not to mention a pretty fair English
accent/impression of Graham Chapman.
Josh Housman, who had the best singing voice in the group, got the role of
Dennis, a.k.a. Sir Galahad, while another theatre veteran, Phil Haines, did
a fine job channeling Terry Jones as Dennis' mum, Mrs. Galahad. More
theatre vets filled the various other roles; Jake Granoff nearly stole the
show as Arthur's trusty servant Patsy (he of the coconut shells and giant
rucksack); Jacob "Bones" Mann played Sir Bedevere, and Danny
Kramer and Eddie Matzner both returned to the stage this summer, playing
the knights who do the coconut bit at the beginning.
There were plenty of talented newcomers on Spamalot; more, I think,
than any other show. Scott Haber's singing voice was a pleasant surprise at
his audition, so we cast him as the not-quite-so-brave Sir Robin. Beau
Lardner, new to camp in 2006, proved to be an excellent
singer/actor/comedian, and we gave him plenty to do as Not-Dead-Fred and
Sir Robin's minstrel. Aaron Feld, who had only done a brief cameo as
the monkey Christery in Wicked the year before, also had a fine
audition and we cast him as Sir Lancelot (the subplot about the character
from the original play was excised from our version). Matt Neer and Adam
Gotlin, neither of whom had ever done a show before, landed prominent
speaking roles as the head Knight of "Ni" and Brother Maynard,
respectively.
Like most musicals, Spamalot has a paucity of female roles,
particularly since (in true Python spirit) we cast a boy as one of
them. It was only fair, then, that the girls got to play some of the
more interesting supporting roles. Essentially, since the boys played all
the Knights of the Round Table, we cast the girls as their sundry
adversaries. Amanda van Poznak displayed a great French accent at her
audition, so she had to be the French taunter ("I fart in your general
direction!!"). Since we didn't have the technology to reproduce the
Broadway staging of the famous scene from the film where the Black Knight
gets all his limbs cut off, I replaced the scene for our version with the
"Three-Headed Knight" scene from the movie; Danielle Scheer,
Annette Covrigaru and Sydney Pollack, all theatre veterans, played the
three heads (as well as the other French knights and Knights of
"Ni"). Alli Komrower played the Very Famous Historian who
narrates the tale.
For the Lady of the Lake, the leading-lady role which was created
specifically for the Broadway show, we cast Nina Carlin, an amazing singer
and performer as well as a terrific camper. Nina, who was so good in The
Little Mermaid as a sophomore, really shone here as the "watery
tart"/enchantress/fairy/diva/spirit guide. The rest of the girls
became the Laker Girls, performing both as cheerleaders and gratuitously
scantily-clad Vegas-style showgirls.
Of course, no upper-camp show would be complete without staff cameos. We
got Terrell Hart to play the Mayor of a Small Town in Finland for the
opening gag, along with group leader David Shwide, and counselors A.J.
Strasser (returning to the stage as a counselor after performing in three
shows as a camper), MaKenzie Morrissey and Ana Eligio. And who could forget
that incomparable showman Shannon Crockett as Tim the Enchanter.
As I mentioned above, Spamalot was fairly easy to adapt to the
Pontiac stage, since the songbook contains essentially all the music and I
could get the dialogue from the DVD of Holy Grail plus whatever I
could remember from seeing the show. The Broadway ending, though, which I
will not divulge here, would not really be workable for us. I essentially
excised most of the original show's second act (including two major musical
numbers) and re-wrote the ending to be Pontiac-specific. I won't describe
the whole thing, but it involved the Holy Grail being hidden at Camp
Pontiac and a color war fake-out built into the play.
The cast of this show was so sharp and so dedicated that they essentially
had the whole thing learned by the time they went on their overnight trips.
All we had to do when they got back was put all the individual scenes
together, work in the props and costumes, and run the show from top to
bottom over and over again. I know I've written this about several shows in
the past, but I don't know if I've ever had a cast so enthusiastic about
the material, so dedicated to the production, so willing and able to work
long hours on the stage, with such a great sense of camaraderie, humor and
fun. I don't think I've ever had so much pure flat-out fun doing a
show, both during rehearsals and on the night of the performance. It was
pure joy, a labor of love for all, from start to finish.
The show itself was wonderful, an unqualified success. It was essentially
flawless technically; the first time I can remember where there were no
technical glitches during the performance. And the audience really seemed
to be enjoying it. One thing that struck me particularly about this show was
that not one freshman boy or girl fell asleep in the front rows, not
one; they all sat quietly in rapt attention throughout the evening. The
response afterward, from campers and staff alike, was overwhelmingly
positive, maybe the best since Les Mis.
Finally, I cannot overstate the contributions to Spamalot, and the
2006 theatre program in general, of the most incredible theatre staff we
ever had at Pontiac. John McNeish-Hastings spent countless hours painting
and creating the sets and props, many of which presented significant
technical challenges. Having someone with such expertise and capability in
stage tech was a first, and was absolutely invaluable to the program in
2006. Julia Gemmell did a great job choreographing some difficult dance
numbers and also helped John with the painting and prop work, while Jan
Ford returned toward the end to help with costumes and fine-tune the
staging as only she can. (Resident artisan Howard Scoffield contributed as
well, constructing and installing the upstage castle battlement to match
the turrets he'd built us for Pippin, which we re-painted and
re-used here.) I couldn't have asked for a better staff, and I certainly
couldn't have hoped for a better final show.
Of course, none of this would
have been possible without the Etra family, whose dedication, enthusiasm
and love have made Camp Pontiac what it is and enabled this theatre program
to come to fruition. To them, I owe my eternal and everlasting gratitude.
To Kenny and Ricky, Karen and Susan; to Marc Sklar, Mike Bongino, Lindsey
Etra, Howard Scoffield, Andrea Levine, Kirsty Langsdale, Emily Gallice,
Clare Norris, Jan Ford, Lori Thompson, Cara Farris, Sarah Davis, James
Powell, J’Von Spann, Jenny Bales, Robin Brown, Julia Gemmell, John
McNeish-Hastings, Mandy Scoffield, Shannon Crockett, and to all of the many
campers and staff who contributed to the shows and to this program, thank
you from the bottom of my heart.
Q.E.D.
________
Pontiac
Players present
MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT
Book by ERIC IDLE Music by JOHN DuPREZ
and ERIC IDLE
Additional Music by NEIL INNES
Additional material by GRAHAM CHAPMAN, JOHN CLEESE,
TERRY GILLIAM, TERRY JONES and MICHAEL PALIN
Principal Cast
ERIC THURM as King Arthur
NINA CARLIN as the Lady of the Lake
JAKE GRANOFF as Patsy
JOSH HOUSMAN as Dennis/Sir Galahad
AARON FELD as Sir Lancelot
SCOTT HABER as Sir Robin
JACOB MANN as Sir Bedevere
BEAU LARDNER as Not-Dead-Fred/Minstrel
ALLI KOMROWER as a Very Famous Historian
ADAM GOTLIN as Brother Maynard
EDDIE MATZNER as Gawain
DANNY KRAMER as Bors
PHIL HAINES as Mrs. Galahad
AMANDA VAN POZNAK as the French Taunter
MATT NEER as the Knight of "Ni"
TERRELL HART as the Mayor of a Small Town in Finland
SHANNON CROCKETT as Tim the Enchanter
Directed by JAY BRAIMAN, JAN FORD,
JULIA GEMMELL and JOHN McNEISH-HASTINGS
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