Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
In 1975, a group of exceptionally witty Brits put out the film "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Loosely based on the legend of King Arthur's quest for the Holy Grail, it was the second film from the Monty Python bunch, but the first to truly cement the troupe's popularity in the US.
The film became a cult classic and it's considered the... well, the Holy Grail of comedy by many for everything from its wacky opening credits to killer rabbits to knights singing about eating "ham and jam and spam a lot." That line inspired Monty Python member Eric Idle to write a musical version of the film appropriately called "Spamalot," which debuted on Broadway in 2005.
And despite the fact that "Spamalot" poked fun at the musical theater tradition, it did extraordinarily well, winning a Tony that year for best musical. Since then, the show has been performed all over the world for audiences from Australia to South Korea, Norway to Mexico.
An now the play is coming to Southern California, debuting at the Hollywood Bowl where the likes of Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Craig Robinson and Christian Slater will all be playing parts.
This production of "Spamalot" runs Friday, July 31st through Sunday, August 1st. For more information click through here.
To hear Alex Cohen speak with the cast of the play about what it's like to put on a major musical after only ten days of rehearsal, click through on the audio embedded above.