I met with Clay Hebert, director of Spamalot, a hilarious play being produced for the first time in Lake Charles to run for two weekends from May 5 – 14 at ACTS theater. It is also the closer of ACTS 50th anniversary season.
<==================PLEASE ORDER TICKETS HERE!! DON'T MAKE US SEND THE KNIGHTS WHO SAY "NI" AFTER YOU!!!
For those of you over 35 or who are British comedy afficianados, most are lucky enough to be familiar with Monty Python – a troupe of British comedians spawning the likes of Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, the late Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, and John Cleese.
These men have been instrumental in (some might say to blame for) everything from A Fish Called Wanda, Fawlty Towers, Time Bandits, and The Secret Policemen's (Other) Ball to Great Railway Journeys of the World and Sahara with Michael Palin, as well as John Cleese's ecclectic turns as: one of the incarnations of Q, the eccentric James Bond inventor, a serious turn in Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as the ill fated Professor Waldman, and Nearly Headless Nick from the Harry Potter franchise – quite literally the sublime to the ridiculous (and I will leave you to figure out which is which), AND (drum roll) Monty Python and the Holy Grail – of which Spamalot is the musical manifestation.
For anyone under 35 or who is NOT familiar with British comedy you are in for an extraordinary surprise treat. I asked Clay how he would describe this play and he suggested: “SNL Meets King Arthur”, and as a "happy go-lucky feel good laugh fest". “The cast are having so much fun it is contagious” – much the feeling one would get when watching the original British crew doing anything Python-esque.
Clay said this is his first time directing, aside from a few 15 minute student productions. The cast is a substantial 20 (10 guys and 10 women). The original script called for some actors to carry 7 characters. But Clay thought it made more sense to break those up. He also chose, as was his directorial prerogative, to re-cast some of the male characters as female. He is not, he explicitly explains, gender switching, but is making it obvious that the characters, who were written as male, have been re-cast as female. The Knight of Ni and Black Knight, for example are both being played, as female characters, by Kathy Heath. Patsy is Kelly Roland. So any of you purists out there just be warned to not complain or you will be chopped down with a HERRING! Or subjected to a killer rabbit. These threats will, of course, make sense once you’ve seen the play.
In addition the Voice of God and Tim the Enchanter are played by Payton Smith, Bob Goodson plays Sir Robin (who runs away a lot – Robin, not Goodson), Corey Tarver is Galahad, King Arthur is Mark Herbert, Lancelot is Aaron Webster and Taylor Novak-Tyler plays Bedevere. In an extraordinary bit of bravery on the part of Clay he is also directing Markie, his wife and mother of his three children. Markie plays The Lady of the Lake. I asked him what it was like to direct his spouse and he quipped: “She understands I am the boss in the theater…..and she is the boss everywhere else.”
A cautionary note is warranted – Clay would consider this a PG-13 outing. With small children of his own he recognizes the need for discretion, although there is no explicit or blatantly “adult” material. A lifetime Python fan myself I would explain that it deserves the warnings one might reserve for a harmlessly intended mischievous romp written by brilliant comedians with the minds of just pubescent teenaged boys and a taste for puerile scatalogical humor. In short – hysterically funny.