coconuts and killer rabbits

"Monty Python's Spamalot" clip-clops into Wynn Las Vegas.

By ANN HENDERSON

"Spamalot” at Wynn Las Vegas is a feast for comedy and Monty Python fans—it’s outrageously silly and wonderfully mad. The musical is 90 minutes of pure nonsense from the dancing and singing corpses ("He is Not Dead, Yet") to the Drive-Up Love Chapel, a take-off on Las Vegas’ drive-through wedding chapel.

Pick your favorite from a string of sight gags: a misplaced Finnish “fish-slapping” scene, a white bunny in the form of a killer beast, and a stumbling ballet featuring a monk and a nun. Obviously, Nevada Magazine readers liked what they saw considering they voted the Arthurian spoof Best New Show in the 2007 Readers’ Poll.

Set in 932 A.D., the tale follows King Arthur and his page, Patsy, as they clip-clop across the English countryside in search of knights for his roundtable. The sound made by coconut halves simulates horses’ hooves, a Python trademark, and has its roots in the film version, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The producers couldn’t afford horses for the low-budget 1975 movie.

John O’Hurley as King Arthur leaves Camelot to find his Holy Grail, later commenting that, “Whatever happens in Camelot, stays in Camelot.” O’Hurley, a live-theater veteran, expanded his fan base with a television role on Seinfeld and as a celebrity contestant and season-one finalist on Dancing With the Stars.

Arthur’s love interest, the Lady of the Lake (Nikki Crawford), emerges with her Laker Girls for a rah-rah spirited dance number worthy of their basketball namesake. Sir Galahad calls the voluptuous Lady a “watery tart.” Crawford later steps into the spotlight for the solo, “The Diva’s Lament,” in which she gripes that she’s been off stage too long. “Whatever happened to my part?” she thunders. Her voice is powerful and has the audience cheering.

Arthur learns about his quest from the voice of John Cleese, one of the original members of Monty Python, a BBC television show from 1969 to 1974. “Of course it is a good idea, you twit. I’m God,” Cleese booms. Arthur is directed to put on a Broadway musical, which launches a spoof of show-business stereotypes. Arthur is warned by Sir Robin that “You Won’t Succeed on Broadway (if you don’t have any Jews).”

Showgirls are interspersed throughout “Spamalot,” from the Laker Girls to an MGM musical-esque number with tap dancers and spinning umbrellas-sort of a Middle-Ages-meets-Singin’ in the Rain.

When the “Spamalot” entourage becomes lost in a “very expensive forest” (the trees are covered with dollar signs), they encounter the Black Knight, superbly played by Edward Staudenmayer. During a fight, the Black Knight’s arm is lopped off. “It’s only a flesh wound,” he says. When he loses another limb, a monk strolls across the stage collecting “arms for the poor.”

Silly and mad? You bet, but deliciously fun.