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[0:31] Jesse McAnally: Hello, and welcome to another extra special episode of Theater in the D. I am joined by my lovely fiancée, Miranda Moffat.

[0:40] Miranda Moffat: Hello, everyone.

[0:45] Jesse McAnally: Miranda, what are we talking about today and what did the lovely people at, oh God, it's ATG, ATG in Detroit. What did we have for today's offering?

[0:53] Miranda Moffat: Today, we saw Monty Python's Spamalot, books and lyrics by Eric Idle and music by John Duprez.

[0:59] Jesse McAnally: John Duprez? I feel like Don Duprez. And also Eric Idle. Yeah. Do you know who Eric Idle is?

[1:06] Miranda Moffat: He is one of the original Monty Python folks, is he not?

[1:12] Jesse McAnally: Yes. But if we had to line him up in a row, do you think you'd be able to pick out which one he is?

[1:16] Miranda Moffat: Um, probably not. If you tell me which knight he is, I could probably, I'll probably remember.

[1:22] Jesse McAnally: He was Sir Robin.

[1:27] Miranda Moffat: Okay, yes. He is kind of known for being the big capitalist of the group. Like, he's always the one that's like trying to find new ways to make money.

[1:31] Jesse McAnally: Like as a human being?

[1:37] Miranda Moffat: Yeah, that is like his big contribution. And everyone is just kind of like, oh, Eric's trying to find new ways to make money off of XYZ. He was the one that kind of became a character actor in films. Never really a lead, but was always like showing up in kids' movies. He was in Disney projects. He was in Casper. And this was kind of like, how can I squeeze more money out of Holy Grail?

[1:52] Jesse McAnally: So this musical was him and his attempt?

[1:59] Miranda Moffat: Yes, it had very little involvement from the other pythons because Graham Chapman had been dead for a minute. And John Cleese, obviously was not involved. And all the rest of them just kind of let him do his thing. But this is really his baby.

[2:10] Jesse McAnally: And the police are there to arrest John, everyone, one of the pythons for not being involved.

[2:15] Miranda Moffat: So I had never seen this musical. This is a wholly new experience. And to prepare you for what this could be, I did force you to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail last night, two nights ago.

[2:24] Jesse McAnally: But yes, um, in a typical rite of passage, I think for all women dating heterosexual men, in addition to watching the entire Star Wars franchise, at some point, I also now have been looped into watching some Monty Python things.

[2:38] Miranda Moffat: Let me be clear. I like Monty Python. Holy Grail is like my third favorite film. Like, it's not even in my top two.

[2:45] Jesse McAnally: Well, it's not a big thing for me the way it is for a lot of folks is just what I'm trying to say. It was not the big influential thing where I quoted every single day the way that, you know, every man that drags their girlfriend to a renaissance fair.

[3:04] Miranda Moffat: You did tell me that like renaissance fairs are now overrun with just people cosplaying that movie is cosplaying quoting it. It's kind of run into the ground the same way a lot of Christmas movie quotes are just run into the ground where it kind of loses meaning, which kind of got me excited for this because I thought this would be a little different.

[3:25] Jesse McAnally: I think on the whole, I very much had a good time tonight. Act one strews a little too close to the source material in my opinion.

[3:30] Miranda Moffat: I would agree. Um, I will say right off the bat, I did not enjoy the movie. You know, I hate to say it because I understand that it's a classic. I just think, you know, as we've learned in other episodes, I have a pretty specific sense of humor that is kind of hard to tickle. So things that are meant to make me laugh and give me nothing else but don't make me laugh. I do not find them very enjoyable.

[3:53] Jesse McAnally: I will say there were definitely it wasn't all bad. There were a few nuggets, a few moments that really caught me. But on the whole, I did fall asleep at a certain point watching the movie.

[4:07] Miranda Moffat: However, I will say that the musical adaptation I think for me personally, you know, I wouldn't say it's like, you know, up there in my favorites, but I definitely think that there was more for me here than there was in the movie.

[4:20] Jesse McAnally: I would say if you agree.

[4:26] Miranda Moffat: I don't know if I'd agree. But maybe it's because once again, these lines have been driven into my head so much that just hearing them said by people that are John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, all that it is just like, oh, it's like hearing Shakespeare again.

[4:43] Jesse McAnally: But when we strayed away from that, I locked in a lot more and it kind of did its own thing. And I really enjoyed those.

[4:54] Miranda Moffat: That's kind of what I'm saying. In another twist, I think maybe this was the case with the last one we saw as well. I preferred Act Two to Act One.

[5:05] Jesse McAnally: I thought that Act One, like as soon as it started, I was like, oh, this is just the movie word for word. So I'm in for a ride of just watching something I already recently watched that I didn't like.

[5:12] Miranda Moffat: I did want to point out they cut the one scene in the movie that you relented and said you liked.

[5:17] Jesse McAnally: I know that was the thing.

[5:23] Miranda Moffat: I did notice that. She likes the castle anthrax scene a lot and everything else she kind of was like not vibing with at all.

[5:28] Jesse McAnally: I think for me watching the movie, I was just like, oh, finally some women.

[5:32] Miranda Moffat: Well, this also introduces a woman character in the Lady of the Lake, and she's great.

[5:38] Jesse McAnally: And that's what I that's kind of what my overall feeling was, was like the parts that were word for word, the movie were obviously not my favorite, because I didn't really love the movie. But when it started to stray, and it started to do its own thing is when I really, really started to like it like and that's why I think Act Two was my favorite of the two because it was the one that had its own most uniqueness and its most sort of differences from the original source material.

[6:03] Miranda Moffat: I am going to reckon I don't think I've heard this specifically, but I think that my headcanon is Eric Idle sat down in a Broadway theater in 2001 and watched Mel Brooks make the producers and win thousands of awards, won all the awards and said, I can do that. And I want to do that.

[6:16] Jesse McAnally: And I would agree, especially, I don't know if we're allowed to say specific acts in the gopher in the musical. But like the part where they are, like, you know, they're talking to the Knights of me and, and they now have to, you know, create a Broadway musical, and then they start looking for Jews, because you can't have a successful Broadway musical without Jewish people.

[6:36] Miranda Moffat: I thought that that was like, that is when the humor really started to hit me. And I think when it had, like, like I said, when it started to stray away from the original source material, and also when it had, like, more specific humor is the things that I like.

[6:53] Jesse McAnally: So like, when they mentioned, for example, Dietrich furs, because we're in Detroit, which if you aren't unfamiliar is like a brand of it's like a store that has been in the city since the 1800s. I think selling it's just about to close down after being open for like 100 plus years.

[7:21] Miranda Moffat: So then mentioning Dietrich furs, the audience was that people were leaving the audience and they're still just talking about the Dietrich furs moment.

[7:33] Jesse McAnally: Yes. So like, I think for me, the specificity of the humor that was added, as well as adding in and that's really why I think things like the movie, like the Monty Python movie, and why things like airplane, while I can, you know, generally respect and appreciate that they are, you know, were like the peak of comedy, maybe in their times, I don't know, is that an accurate representation?

[8:00] Miranda Moffat: All right. More comedic in their times, that some of this humor just doesn't hit the same because the references are not going to be the same for a modern audience. So bringing the production of Spamalot into, you know, the modern day with a more modern references, references to like, modern songs and jukebox musicals, and you know, the references to Wicked and stuff like that.

[8:19] Jesse McAnally: They sang K-pop Demon Hunters.

[8:21] Miranda Moffat: That's what I'm saying. The specificity of those things, I particularly enjoyed, and I assume that they choose a different sort of like different, different specific references per where they are performing, which I think is really interesting.

[8:33] Jesse McAnally: Um, I was really worried that this was going to be another poorly designed kind of, you know, we're gonna have a screen and that is our set. No, this had really good sets that changed often, and I was impressed by it. The production value was on stage quite a bit.

[8:50] Miranda Moffat: Um, I once again, that first act where it's just kind of very hewing very close to the movie, I was really, I was struggling with it. But as soon as act two starts, and I had worries because even leaving the show, I still think the best song in the entire production is always look on the bright side of life, which is not it's from Life of Brian, the second Monty Python movie.

[9:12] Jesse McAnally: And still, that's the only one anyone's humming. And it is also the encore number where they make everyone sing along. And the only the big emotion I felt was watching boomers, baby boomers and their kids all together kind of singing the song. And I just realized, oh yeah, this movie is 53 fucking years old.

[9:33] Miranda Moffat: That's what I'm saying. It's like, it's, you know, I respect that even if it's not my favorite thing in the world, that's because it's probably not entirely for me. But I think the good thing about the musical is that it does bring in elements that are for the original audience, and also now updating pieces of it to be more moderate. Like those are those are the things that I really enjoyed about it.

[9:52] Jesse McAnally: And I do have to note if anybody has listened to this podcast before they know that Jesse has a particular disdain for prolonged dance numbers in a musical, which if that is not your thing, this is not your musical.

[10:06] Miranda Moffat: I for one don't mind a prolonged musical number. I will say even in my opinion, there were they were a little bit too long.

[10:17] Jesse McAnally: Every number got a dance break.

[10:20] Miranda Moffat: It was a little bit too much of it for me even. And you could kind of feel a little bit, this is always the case when you're adapting, I think, a movie to a stage musical, you can feel that the timing and the placing things in certain areas, like the pacing is a little bit different.

[10:36] Jesse McAnally: And you could tell that they're trying to get to their run time by adding in a few too many dance numbers. They're still very fun and enjoyable, though.

[10:44] Miranda Moffat: Yeah. And like, you know, the ensemble's doing the great work and all that. I do want to highlight, this is based on the most recent revival that starred Alex Brightman, James Monroe Iglehart, Ethan Slater, and a bunch of those folks.

[10:58] Jesse McAnally: And it did just feel like, man, we really did get folks that look and sound almost identical to those people. I don't know how they found clones of everyone. But like the gentleman that played Lanza looked just like Alex Brightman, a gentleman that played, oh gosh, what's Herbert looks exactly like Ethan Slater.

[11:14] Miranda Moffat: And I was just like, you make these clones in a lab for the tours.

[11:20] Jesse McAnally: I have no context for that, because I have not seen that production. I know those names.

[11:25] Miranda Moffat: I know what their faces look like.

[11:27] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, I mean, obviously, as always, the cast and the ensemble were really putting in the work, especially, I mean, I guess I couldn't see the faces entirely well. But the gentleman that played Lance a lot, and this made me realize just how many roles John Cleese had in the movie.

[11:43] Miranda Moffat: I think there were maybe some things I didn't realize were him while I was watching the movie. And I'm like, oh, Lance a lot. That's aka John Cleese's character does all of these things. So like, is the Frenchman now?

[11:48] Jesse McAnally: Okay, so props, props to them.

[11:59] Miranda Moffat: And the Tim Tim guy and what else? Oh, there are several things. He's all over that.

[12:06] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, there's a lot. He was a lot of the characters.

[12:11] Miranda Moffat: Now, I gotta say Eric Idle. I don't love his song. Most of the time. I think he's great. It's like if you asked Weird Al to write a musical, he's great for quick parody numbers where they get a joke in and they get out quick.

[12:21] Jesse McAnally: There's like three songs where I think he really had a good idea behind the number and then the rest of it is just like, yeah, let's sing for a bit.

[12:26] Miranda Moffat: Yeah. And that's I would say if there's any kind of weaknesses of this, of the musical itself, it would be that that you're right, the things that people are humming are not really the actual song.

[12:32] Jesse McAnally: They're humming always look on the bright side of life.

[12:43] Miranda Moffat: Yes, they're not the actual songs from the show. And it is in that way that I feel generally when I watch musicals that are adapting a movie. Sometimes they do fall into the trap of, you know, when the music starts, it feels like we're taking ourselves out of the action as opposed to the music being relevant to us telling the story in the way that a musical should be in my opinion.

[13:02] Jesse McAnally: So it does kind of fall into that trap a little bit for me.

[13:07] Miranda Moffat: I see what you mean. I'm sorry to interrupt, but it does make me appreciate what Mel Brooks did with the producers, where I truly believe structurally, it works better as a musical than it did a film originally, and the songs push it forward so much better.

[13:22] Jesse McAnally: That's always the best thing when like, you don't expect an adaptation of a thing to improve upon the source material. And it does, I feel like nine times out of 10, that is not the case. And you're just adapting something that was already kind of in its perfect form. So I always love to see it when that happens.

[13:36] Miranda Moffat: But I will say like, as I mentioned before, even if I don't think it's a perfect adaptation, I think I probably enjoyed Spamalot more than I did the movie itself, which is like maybe heresy. I don't know.

[13:49] Jesse McAnally: No, no, it's, it's also much more American tailored. Like this is much more for an American taste and American broader style of humor.

[13:55] Miranda Moffat: Yes, yes. Come here and give me exactly what I want my disgusting American tastes.

[14:05] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, that's kind of what Eric Idle is. Eric Idle is a showman that wants to impress an audience, and he really wants to impress Americans.

[14:15] Miranda Moffat: Well, good on you. Good on you.

[14:18] Jesse McAnally: Whereas you got folks like Terry Gilliam, who is an American, I don't think he's ever impressed an American a day in his life.

[14:22] Miranda Moffat: Now, Jesse, was there any scene like specifically that you saw in the movie and liked better on stage or a scene that you liked better in the movie?

[14:28] Jesse McAnally: I mean, like, obviously the scene that they did not include, which I was like, really, really, you guys, you you did everything else. You included every one of the other bits, except for the one singular one that got a chuckle out of me while I watched the movie. That was a little disappointing. So I'm sad it wasn't in there.

[14:46] Miranda Moffat: But I know it wasn't the airspeed velocity of swallows. You hated that bit both times it was happening.

[14:57] Jesse McAnally: Yes, I did. I can just feel the anger bubbling inside you.

[15:02] Miranda Moffat: Watching the movie made me feel like is this where Seth MacFarlane came up with that those bits in Family Guy where it just goes on way, way, way too long, and you're waiting for it to stop.

[15:11] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, those things I find desperately annoying. So did not love that in either version. But I will say pretty much like I was saying before, every scene that was a that strayed away from the original was probably better to me than what was in the movie.

[15:24] Miranda Moffat: Like I said, the song number where they instead of having to find extra shrubbery from the Knights of Knee, now they are having to put on a Broadway show. And that whole song number was just absolutely hilarious.

[15:42] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, we were you and I who are pretty stone faced for Act One were like actively laughing very hard in our chair.

[15:48] Miranda Moffat: Like the Knights of Knee scene, which I also very much hated in the movie, I thought was hilarious in the musical because of because they did that whole bit about like Dietrich furs and Little Caesars pizza like they were pulling out the references like I thought that was funny.

[16:02] Jesse McAnally: I actually really enjoyed that. I mean, that was probably the hardest I laughed the whole time.

[16:07] Miranda Moffat: Because as I said, there is a song number which I feel like I want to pull out what the actual name of the song is. So people don't just think that I'm like making something up. What is the song number?

[16:15] Jesse McAnally: Oh, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Let's see here.

[16:22] Miranda Moffat: You won't succeed on Broadway.

[16:26] Jesse McAnally: Yes. Well, they're basically singing a song about you won't succeed on Broadway unless you find Jewish people to be involved a la like Barbra Streisand or Bette Midler.

[16:33] Miranda Moffat: Sure, let me finish my thought and then you should go on your rant.

[16:36] Jesse McAnally: I thought that that was absolutely hilarious. And it ended up being essentially an unintentional callback because they have that like Jesse was mentioning the bit at the end where they call the peasant up on stage, quote unquote peasant who is sitting in a specific seat number that finds the Holy Grail.

[17:01] Miranda Moffat: And this woman from the audience came on stage and she said her name was something Goodman and then she said Shelly Goodman and they were like, you know, giving her this award for being the best peasant and then she's she went like also I'm a Jew. And everybody lost their shit.

[17:06] Jesse McAnally: Because that's like a big part of act two basically is them on a quest for finding Jewish people to be involved in their Broadway musical.

[17:12] Miranda Moffat: So like that stuff was, I think actively very funny to me. Also, I still want you to go on your rant about that song.

[17:23] Jesse McAnally: I fell asleep at the end of the movie when we were watching it. So I don't really remember exactly what happened. But I kind of remember that everybody died and it wasn't satisfying. Is that correct?

[17:34] Miranda Moffat: It has like it doesn't. Yes, they they didn't have Oh, yeah, that was probably one of the only jokes that actually got me in the movie also like that. And the two things that I actually liked were the only things that were in the musical, which is hilarious.

[17:49] Jesse McAnally: That whole thing with the like historian and the investigator like him dying. That was funny.

[17:53] Miranda Moffat: Um, but it was like completely unsatisfying and they never find it right. But at least the musical and again, this is me. I love a conclusion. Jesse's always like, ah, yeah, leave it open ended. I love not knowing and being sad. I'm like, No, give me the ending exactly as it's supposed to be. So I don't have to guess and I know what it's supposed to be. And I love that. I love a happy ending and it gave it to me. So that made me very happy.

[18:21] Jesse McAnally: Okay, now go on your rant about that song number.

[18:25] Miranda Moffat: You'll never succeed on Broadway. So that is hiding the joke of the song with the chorus is really like like that in the chorus. It is that is a trend that was started by the set by a chorus because they had a song that chorus and then they were like, why is no one fucking laughing at this joke? It's a good reveal. It's a funny joke because the playbills the song was titled and now that they're like, well, we're going to change the song to like the most important thing bumping and that because now the trend is like that are at court.

[18:48] Jesse McAnally: That's why that thing called what is that is something that they probably should have been doing anyway.

[18:52] Miranda Moffat: I'm not gonna lie. Like why would you give away the punchline when you're like writing?

[18:59] Jesse McAnally: Yes. I enjoyed a lot of this cast is great. If you like Monty Python and the Holy Grail like a lot. And while we were kind of middling on Act One, everyone else in the audience they were loving.

[19:10] Miranda Moffat: Yeah, if you if you enjoy the movie, you're gonna enjoy the musical because it's it's pretty close most of the time and if not to the page to the essence of the movie, but I think if you also are not particularly a fan of the movie like I am there is also something for you in it.

[19:26] Jesse McAnally: Yeah, and I think that's a top for everyone. I don't even think it's barely for fun being honest. I love Life of Ryan. That's the one I really like every other one. I'm just kind of yeah, that one's fine.

[19:35] Miranda Moffat: I get it.

[19:38] Jesse McAnally: And that's why I always look at the bright side of life is the one the song that gives me the most like, oh, yeah, I feel something but you know, it doesn't work as well if everyone's not crucified and trying to sing about darling.

[19:43] Miranda Moffat: What is your overall thoughts on Spamalot?

[19:49] Jesse McAnally: I think my overall thoughts on Spamalot are even though it didn't include the only two things about the movie that I actively liked, I did enjoy it more than the movie itself. Just because I think it's easier to like, you know, like you said, it's a little bit more geared towards a specific sense of humor and American sensibilities.

[20:05] Miranda Moffat: So I think I appreciated it in general more than the movie, which you know, don't don't be mad at me. I'm sorry.

[20:11] Jesse McAnally: But yeah, I would say my cheese rating is probably like a smoked Gouda cheese because it's very, very rich and fatty and you should only enjoy it every once in a while probably. But it's still amazingly delicious. And when you finally get it, it's awesome.

[20:30] Miranda Moffat: Is that a reference to Spamalot?

[20:54] Jesse McAnally: Nerd. Anyway, thank you to Broadway in Detroit, or I guess what's it called now?

[21:01] Miranda Moffat: ATG.

[21:06] Jesse McAnally: Thank you to ATG for having us and allowing us to have this experience and share it with all of you. Next, we will be covering Phantom of the Opera.

[21:11] Miranda Moffat: No, is it?

[21:17] Jesse McAnally: I think so. According to the Playbill, that's what they've got playing.

[21:22] Miranda Moffat: Okay.

[21:28] Jesse McAnally: I love Kinky Boots. I'm excited.

[21:31] Miranda Moffat: It's like an old timer, like, oh, I listen.

[21:35] Jesse McAnally: Well, maybe Kinky Boots, but definitely Phantom of the Opera sometime in February. So tune in next time.

[21:48] Miranda Moffat: Yes.

[21:55] Jesse McAnally: Thanks for the fun.