Spamalot

This was the next day, after we saw The Muse at the Pageant.  I invited Lydia to this performance also because Max wasn't interested in seeing it.  But Lydia wasn't interested either, so lucky Max was able to come with me.

Like Dame Edna, we weren't quite sure what to expect with Spamalot.  Is it going to be very silly or so so enjoyable?  First, there was a substitution for the main character, John O'Hurley.  Oh no...

The performance started and it was a laugh a minute starting with the Fish Slapping Dance and the dancing Plague victims.  Sounds silly and morbid, huh?  Well that is Monty Python and this show was better than the movie, I thought.  The laughs didn't end even when the show was over as we walked out of the theatre to the parking lot.  The laughs weren't just giggles or chuckles.  We went through gut-splitting, laugh out loud, tears in our eyes enjoyment.  In the movie I thought it would silly to see knights and King Arthur pretending to gallop on horses while a serf followed them clapping coconuts together.  But it was funny.

The French taunting was especially funny.  In that one scene French guards were taunting King Arthur and his knights from atop the fortress wall.  All we could see was his head moving along the outline of the ramparts as he was giving Arthur and his knights the raspberry.

King Arthur and his knights were trying to find the Holy Grail.  A clue was discovered under this huge boulder.  When it was uncovered, we could see the characters "D49'.  It turns out that it was a seat number.  The knights go out into the audience, finds the Holy Grail under that seat, then drags the reluctant member of the audience who was sitting there, onstage.  They have fun with the guy who good-naturedly went along with it all and when it was all over, had his picture taken with a polaroid taken by one of the knights.

The singing and dancing were great.  A hit a minute with laughs throughout.  We didn't even miss John O'Hurley.

Final judgement? We would not only see it again, we would pay to see it again.

Pageant of the Masters

This year the theme and title is The Muse.  We were apprehensive if it was going to be good or not because we invited Damian and Chiyo to come with us.  We were hoping they would enjoy their first Pageant performance.  Originally, we invited Lydia and Al since they were in town, but they checked out the URL I sent them and said it wasn't something they would be interested in.

It was a nice day because we drove into Laguna Beach early to beat the Pageant traffic.  There was hardly any traffic, we found a parking spot and we were able to find a table overlooking the beach at Hotel Laguna for dinner.

The reason we didn't like the previous two years' performances is because they had extraneous performances such as singing or dancing.  We just want the artwork.  This year it seems they have gotten the message because that is what they did.  They focused on the art and there were more introductions to the artwork to show how they put it all together with the volunteers, set design and lighting.  Overall it was a good show and Damian and Chiyo enjoyed themselves.  So did we.