BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Union High School Music Department will present the hit musical Monty Python's Spamalot on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (Feb. 16, 17, and 18) in the BUHS Auditorium.
The Thursday performance will begin at 4 p.m.; Friday and Saturday evening performances will begin at 7 p.m. Due to mature content, parents are advised that this show may not suitable for children under 13 years old.
The show is directed by Robert Kramsky (stage director), Stephen Rice (music co-director), Anthony Speranza (music co-director) and Mitch Davis (producer), and marks Rice's 29th year with the BUHS musical as well as Speranza's 23rd affiliation with BUHS. This is Kramsky and Davis' 41st year of collaboration on BUHS musicals. The production staff also includes Mary Linney (17 years as costumer) and Melanie Zinn (13 years as choreographer).
All told, 164 years of combined experience are uniting to bring this production to the BUHS stage, according to a news release.
Thirty years after the motion picture Monty Python and the Holy Grail was launched, Eric Idle “lovingly ripped off” a new musical from the screenplay and named it Monty Python's Spamalot. After development in Chicago, Spamalot moved to Broadway's Shubert Theatre for previews before it opened on March 17, 2005. The show ran for 1,575 performances, won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Musical and was nominated for 14 other Tony awards in that same year.
The story follows King Arthur as he travels around England recruiting his Knights of the Round Table. When he and his band of misfit knights finally gather in Camelot, they receive a charge from God to find the Holy Grail. The quest brings King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table to strange places and into the company of strange characters, challenging them to keep their heads on straight or die terribly weird deaths.
The BUHS production features Aiden Meyer (King Arthur), Malcolm Toleno (Patsy), Cassie Dunn (Sir Robin), Jackson Levengood (Sir Lancelot), and Amelia Graff (Lady of the Lake).
Additional players, covering a multitude of roles, include Izabel Estrin, Henry O'Connell, Havah Patton, Rachel Racco, Frida Rosner, Mycroft Stone, Theresa Underwood, Alissa Walkowiak, and Joslynn Wright.
The show's orchestra is composed of BUHS student musicians and area musicians: Payton Lawrence (flute), Jordan Rosch (alto saxophone), Elijah Taylor (clarinet and tenor saxophone), Rhys Glennon and Lilia Kocsis (trumpet), Riley Goodemote (alto horn), Zola von Krusenstiern (trombone), Michelle Liechti (violin), Patty Meyer (piano), Steve Rice (conductor and bass), Ari Essunfeld (percussion), and Sebastian Paquette (drums).