August 13, 2008
by Suman Bhuchar
The news that Sanjeev Bhaskar was going to appear as King Arthur, in a quintessentially British Musical, Spamalot - was greeted with raised eyebrows amongst the Asian theatre circles.
On the one hand was the “good on yer” great to have an Asian face in the West End, playing an iconic historical British figure, on the other, can a man who plays, Sanjeev Kumar in The Kumars at No. 42 really pull it off?
The answer is “Yes”, he’s really done it!
Spamalot, as the show describes itself is “a new musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture, Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” - therefore a “comedy with songs” which mixes British school boy humour with dry wit, peppered with rude jokes aimed at all races from Finns, French, Jews and the British.
The plot is simple: King Arthur is trying to recruit a group of Knights to help him find the Holy Grail - but the fun arises, as the show lampoons everything in its wake: From the idea of kingship drawn on the basis of getting a sword in the lake; West End musicals; The tree guardians from Lord of the Rings, the Trojan Horse and even the Grail itself!
Bhaskar first appears with his servant, Patsy (Andrew Spillett), — who comes hitting two coconuts together pretending to be horses hooves - and utters pompously, “I am Arthur King of the Britons,” whereupon he is greeted with derision; “And I am the King of Norway,” type thing.
However, a bit later in the show, he follows it up in a desi drawl “and I’m your King Innit“, the audience hoots with laughter.
Speaking to the actor after the performance, he explains that there is not much room to improvise as you have to stick close to the script. There is a big moment at the end of the show, when the Grail is discovered where touches of Sanjeev threaten to overwhelm the King.
He also manages to slip in a few words of Hindi - all well received by the audience.
It’s interesting that most of them are Westerners, who are familiar with Monty Python humour and have probably seen the show before, as well as The Kumars.
For most time, Bhaskar plays it straight, you can see him enjoying dancing at Camelot — which is like a cross between an evangelical church and a Las Vegas casino.
As it’s a musical he has to sing: His big solo moment is with his rendition of “I’m all alone,” lamenting his fate, and he has another duet, with the Lady of the Lake, (finely played by Amy Field) –”The Song that Goes Like this,” and his voice sounds pleasant enough, even though it might not win him the Eurovision song contest.
At the end of the day, Spamalot is an ensemble piece, with some great performances by a range of cast - including Jake Nightingale as Lancelot (a homophobic character, who ends up coming out), and Gerard Casey as Prince Herbert.
It’s a fun night out but not for the faint hearted as there is a lot of crude humour. Bhaskar appears in the show until October 5 but the production runs until 3rd Jan, 2009.