I went to see “Spamalot” last night at the Wynn Hotel.

I got really choice seats. 3rd Row Center, about 8 feet from the stage. One of the best vantage points in the house (I could see up the showgirl’s skirts).

Okay, I’ve already outlined my less-than-stellar history with Broadway shows in The Producers review, so there is no need to go through that again.

So this show arrived in Vegas, and all of a sudden it is the big buzz. Everyone is talking about it in one way or another. A friend of mine saw the show and said “I am a Monty Python fan, but I would rather poke my eyes out with a fork than see that show again”. Sounded great.

I was adamant that I would get half-priced tickets at one of the local cheap ticket booths. So when I found myself on the Strip yesterday, I swung by the half-priced booth to see what they had. “Sorry Sir, Spamalot is too new, they don’t distribute discounted tickets yet” (this turned out to be a blessing). Fair enough. But I realized that I was at the booth next to the Riviera, and could look right over at the Wynn itself a block to the south. So why not just stop in and see what the box office has available.

Lucky me, there is no line, but I go through the appropriate ropes anyway. Just when I was ready to take my place at the front of the line, these old farts bypass the ropes and just stand right in front of me …

Oh really, don’t mind me, just feel free to take whatever fucking place in the line you so desire. It’s your world … the rest of us are just living in it.

So they get the only agent working, and take 10 minutes to decide that they don’t want to see anything.

Geriatric assholes.

Say what you want about kids in Vegas, but the 60+ crowd bring their own annoyances. Oh by the way, that whole Social Security thing that helps you take these trips to Vegas … You’re Welcome!

Now, my expectations for this show were low, and I planned on getting the $49 nosebleed tickets, but when the agent showed me 3rd row center seats … it was hard to resist. Why bother going to a show if you are going to get shitty seats? And being that seats 15 rows behind me cost the same price, I got suckered into the good seats.

I bought the tickets and looked at my watch. 2 hours to go. Dammit. I put my name on the looong Poker Room list, figured it will be two hours before I got into a game, so I went over to play some Video Poker. How can I maintain my boycott of the Wynn house gaming area, and still play?

Four words … 5 cent Video Poker. I kid you not.

So I put my headphones on, and played Bonus Video Poker one stinking nickel at a time.

Man, I was getting so bored. So I stopped paying attention to my surroundings and cranked up my headphones so I could not hear outside noise. “Alive” by Pearl Jam came on, and temporarily forgetting where I was, I belted out:

“Son, she said, have I got a little story for you
What you thought was your daddy was nothin’ but a …
While you were sittin’ home alone at age thirteen
Your real daddy was dyin’, sorry you didn’t see him, but I’m glad we talked…”

I suddenly feel like I am being looked at. And I am. I look up, and the people (mostly old farts) in the entire row of video machines are staring at me. DOH! Here is a 6′2″ white guy with headphones playing nickel video poker in an opulent casino while shouting Pearl Jam lyrics at the top of his lungs. They didn’t seem to be enjoying my performance. They seemed really confused, and maybe a little scared. I think they thought I was talking to a voice in my head. So I shut up. But I kept on playing. Fuck ‘em.

An hour later, I walked away up 15 cents. The Video Poker machine would kick me out of my game roughly every 20 hands. These machines are apparently programmed to try to get rid of people like me, but I took up valuable real estate, and I was persistent. It probably cost them more than 15 cents in electricity. Power to the people! But I digress.

It’s showtime.

I went inside the “Grail Theater” and I was really impressed with my seats. Any closer and I would be looking straight up … they were just about perfect. About 8-10 feet from the actors. The Theater was very clean and nicely appointed, but there were some obviously bad seats in the house. It would suck to be in the balcony, or way over on the sides.

One thing I realized about this show is that the proximity to the actors is VERY important. The show has alot of sight-gags, and having them in front of your face vs. seeing them from 50+ feet away can really make or break the show. I couldn’t help but imagine that the people in the Mezzanine section must have felt like they were watching this show on TV rather than being at a play.

The curtain went up, and the show launched right into the sketches. And when John O’Hurley first appeared on stage (about 10 minutes into the show), the crowd erupted into applause.

As the show went on, I came to a suprising realization. This was possibly the most entertaining play that I had ever attended. And given the decidely mixed reviews, I was shocked. I thought it would be a train wreck, but it was damn amusing.

It was about 70% standard Monte Python skits from his previous movies, with about 30% new material with a Vegas flair (scantily dressed Vegas showgirls in musical numbers). Oh yes, sporadic wood can be had at this show. Go figure …

They did many of the classics: “The King’s coconut shells instead of a horse”, “The Black Knight”, “The asshole French … I fart in your general direction”, “The knights that say “Nee!”, “The Flying Cow”, “Jews on Broadway”, “Gods feet decending from above”, “The gay prince”, and too many others to name. In 90 minutes, they covered a huge deal of Python’s most well-known skits from the “Holy Grail” era.

I haven’t seen a Python movie in about 15 years, but all of these scenes came back to me while watching the play, and all I can say is that in person, they are much funnier than they are in the movies. All of the actors were exceptionally good. Seeing them play out these skits with a straight face, in real time, made it so much more funny than watching it on a medium in which they could retake a scene and edit the product. Now that I have seen this play, I realize that Python stuff live is a lot more funny live than on film. I laughed at some of the live stuff that I yawned through in the movies.

Again, I think much of this favorable impression was due to my seat, because it was all playing out mere feet in front of my face, and it was quite overwhleming and easy to get caught up in the amusement. I don’t think the effect would be the same seeing this show from the balcony or the mezzanine. The site gags and facial expressions are much more effective when the audience gets a good view.

The “Lady of the Lake” had some really great singing numbers, and the dancers carried out really fun musical numbers. More fun than the “Jubilee” and “Folies” dance numbers in my opinion. It was goofy, but the vocals and dancing were good. As a matter of fact, when you see this show, you get a good Vegas Showgirl review in addition to the comedy sketches. This is one of those Broadway shows that really has been well-ported to Vegas.

And I can’t state strongly enough that the actors really, really pulled off their roles with maximum effect. O’Hurley was excellent as the lead character, and seems like he was made for the role. He’s a great comedic actor.

They threw in some topical one liners here and there referring to Jenifer Hudson and “what happens in Camelot stays in Camelot” … which I had heard they would do, and while I was expecting it, the rest of the audience apparently wasn’t. They burst into laughter.

The hour and a half went by very quickly, and I was actually left wanting more. A first for me while seeing a play.

The actors received a well-deserved standing ovation at the curtain call, and then lead the audience in one final song as confetti rained down upon the audience. The mood was very festive and light.

A good time really did appear to be had by all.

So I walked in with low expectations, and walked out smiling, and extraordinarily impressed.

For pure entertainment value, I give Spamalot a solid 9/10. Seriously. I know it has been panned here and there … but I don’t know what else you would want from this show. All of the classics carried out by actors who are arguably better than their movie counterparts, non-stop for 90 minutes. Good props, good humor, good musical numbers, great singing, good dancing, some of the more attractive showgirls in town … what the hell more do you want in a 90 minute production?

The caveat is that I give it a 9/10 from third row center. The visual effects from this perspective are huge. What they may be from further back in the house may well be less. Moreso than other shows, for this one, I think location is everything. If you can swing it, get the good seats. I think this is necessary to get maximum enjoyment from the show.

Two thumbs up, and one extra appendage up for the two showgirls prancing around in garters and panties.

(The asterisk on that sign says “after the show is finished”)