opening knight

Back in 2005, Spamalot debuted on Broadway. It was the culmination of hours and hours of work, from the writing of the book and music, the choreography, the rewrites, the direction, the costumes, the orchestration, and the impressive acting. It was a modern musical update of the famous film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Eric Idle took that original idea and crafted a musical around it, and he’s sharing part of that journey with the rest of us.

Recently, cleaning out his old papers, he found the diary he kept while they took Spamalot from paper to a production, and it’s a gold mine of anecdotes about the final rewrites, from the first cast reading to opening night and beyond. Idle was asked to do rewrite after rewrite for this, and his hard work pays off. Songs get added and left behind, scenes get moved around or taken out, and Idle survives it all. He may spill some of his disappointments to his diary from time to time, but he also uses it to celebrate victories and adore director Mike Nichols and stars Tim Curry, Sara Ramirez, David Hyde Pierce, and Hank Azaria.

There are some moments in this book that are funny, some that are sad, and some that are downright breathtaking. When all the remaining Pythons came to the show, I was so moved to hear their thoughts of the show. And finding out who finds the grail on the first night of the show was so sweet.

I loved getting this backstage pass to the creation and polishing of Spamalot. As a longtime Python fan, I was immediately invested in this story. Those who are not as familiar with their work may not understand the significance of some of the references, but anyone who is a theater nerd will soak in all the stories. And fans of Gray’s Anatomy will discover that Sara Ramirez was woefully underused as Dr. Callie Torres. But that aside, Spamalot is iconic for a hundred different reasons, and The Spamalot Diaries shines a spotlight on them all.