Exclusive First Look at the New 'Spamalot' Revival Premiering Tomorrow

Walking down 44th Street in New York's theater district, one might think they hear what sounds like horse hoofs. But that is no cavalry, just the clanking of coconuts ringing out from the St. James Theater.

This can only mean one thing: Spamalot has returned to Broadway nearly two decades after the musical from John Du Prez and Eric Idle premiered in 2005. This show is based on the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which parodies the medieval legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, and is set to premiere on Broadway on November 16.

The original production, staring Tim Curry, Hank Azaria, David Hype Pierce and Christian Borle, was nominated for 14 Tony Awards and won three, including Best Musical.

The 2023 revival is coming off a well-received two-week run at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., last May. Much of the cast and director Josh Rhodes also made the transition to New York.

From the moment Rhodes received the call from Jeffrey Finn, the vice president of Theater Producing and Programming at the Kennedy Center and Spamalot producer, to direct the show, he has felt like he is living out a college dream.

"I always loved the show and I knew Monty Python of course from college, because any theater geek knows Python," Rhodes told Newsweek. "I mean, we quote it all the time—we'd all parade around with terrible British accents and amuse our friends for years and now I actually get to do it professionally."

With this show, Rhodes is "pretty damn excited" to be making his directorial debut on Broadway bringing one of his favorite shows to a new audience.

"I'm not gonna lie, when I first turned the corner on Eighth Avenue and saw the marquee with my name on it, it was sort of beyond anything I ever could have imagined for myself," he said. "When I was a performer, I was always in the ensemble and I was very happy. And as a choreographer, you don't get that kind of billing. But as a director, you do so it does sort of slap you across the face and an interesting way you're like, 'there we go, there's my name.'"

Rhodes has worked in theater for decades as an actor, choreographer and director on and off Broadway. He even auditioned for the original production of Spamalot and watched his husband, Lee Wilkins, as a replacement swing in the show.

Over the years, Rhodes' experience in the theater world has created a directorial style that is entirely his own. His understanding of the realities and stresses of being a swing or understudy performer, a choreographer and even an assistant has helped him run the room as "the captain of this ship."

"I think it's sort of also helps me as a director that I've seen the world from so many vantage points," he said.

While being at the helm of this type of production may seem daunting, Rhodes said it has been made easier with the all-star cast of "hilarious clowns," as he describes them.

Spamalot stars SNL alum Taran Killam as Lancelot, Tony nominee Christopher Fitzgerald (Waitress, Company) as Patsy, Tony winner James Monroe Iglehart (Aladdin, Hamilton) as King Arthur, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer (Beetlejuice) as The Lady of the Lake, Tony nominee Ethan Slater (SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical) as The Historian/Prince Herbert, Jimmy Smagula (Billy Elliot) as Sir Bedevere, Drama Desk Award winner Michael Urie (Shrinking, Torch Song) as Sir Robin and Nik Walker (Hamilton) as Sir Galahad.

Iglehart, Kritzer, Smagula, Urie and Walker were all part of the Kennedy Center cast, along with Alex Brightman (Beetlejuice, School of Rock) as Lancelot. Brightman is set to rejoin the cast beginning January 9, 2024.

"It's been a lot of laughter, they just make me laugh," Rhodes said. "They're just spectacular artists and they're also very sweet to each other."

The cast consists of theater veterans and newcomers alike, many of whom have been friends and collaborators for years.

Jimmy Smagula, who plays Sir Bedevere, said his goal as an actor is to always be in shows where he is learning something every night.

"This [show] has been heaven for me because I have learned so much already from each cast member," he told Newsweek. "If you really pay attention and you watch people work it benefits you as an actor because you can take different tools from each of those people and put them in your own toolbox for the next time or for the present time."

Performing comedy well requires a great amount of trust between everyone in the room. Nik Walker, who plays Sir Galahad, told Newsweek it is often difficult to blend an ensemble together to create a show. Finding the rhythm of a joke that translates to the audience is no easy feat. Without trust, the actors can miss the landing on the humor, be overly critical and try to pull focus from their castmates.

But that is not the case at the St. James Theater.

"The trust is already built," he said. "We all know each other and we're all comfortable with each other."

Walker adds that there is a lightness in the room that encourages "play" where actors often pitch ideas and test things out in rehearsal with ease. He credits this atmosphere to Rhodes, who told the cast in D.C. that rehearsal is recess and he's the teacher letting them be free until he calls them to come back inside.

"As a Black man in this industry, I've always been called on to be more adult that I want to be. I have to be grown up, I have to be aware at all times," he said. "This is the first time in my career when I just get to let my 10-year-old kid out and just be an idiot, be a kid, be a little boy playing with his friends."

As the director, Rhodes said his job is to handle the "mechanical" side of comedy. He said his role is almost like a film editor—reviewing the footage each rehearsal and trying to put together whatever material will make the actors shine.

"I have these brilliant comedians who have so many delicious ideas and, for me, it's a process of trying to figure out how to get the best out of [them] and make sure that we allow them some of their own created moments that are just uniquely theirs," Rhodes said.

The dry, satirical material from Spamalot and Monty Python has stood the test of time and needs little adjustment. Rhodes ensures that he has only made small tweaks in this revival. One of the few but significant adjustments is the casting. In the original film and Broadway musical, the majority of the cast was white. This show features two men of color as principal cast members.

Walker said he is conscious of the fact that he might not have been cast when the show first ran in 2005. But he's found without changing the script, the diverse group of actors bring their own experiences and perspectives to add something new to the show. He hopes this invites all audience members to find humor and joy in the show through within their own culture and identities.

"The beauty of Monty Python's writing is that there is something, I believe, about good writing that is so specific, it's universal," Walker said. "These jokes are so specific and in different hands, they mean different things."

After enduring shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing political and financial turmoil, Rhodes said audiences need some form relief to forget about the realities of their lives for a few hours—whether the audience is a lifelong Python fan or coming in fresh with an open mind.

"I realized that everyone does have a need to go to the theater and just be watched people be silly, ironic and sarcastic and all those things we need to sort of to just get away from work and our lives for a moment," he said. "We were allowing the audience into this feeling and you could feel the release in the in the crowd and it was pretty remarkable."

Spamalot is heavy on jokes but light on plot, offering a hilarious tale without getting bogged down in complicated storylines. Smagula said this show offers audiences the opportunity to "just leave their troubles at the door" and have a great time.

"You really don't have to think very hard," he said. "You don't have to follow some intricate story. We are looking for the Grail."

For those who haven't seen a Monty Python episode, Rhodes jokes that he hopes they enjoyed their time living under a rock and that they take the time to do a deep dive into the British comedy troupe after the show.

"It's just so clever and absurd that I wish for everybody to have [Monty Python] in the same way it's given me such a respect and love for the humor and intelligence and the dryness of what they gave us," he said.

For the die hard Python fans, Rhodes hopes they feel a warm sense of nostalgia for the show they know and love while still getting excited for the fresh take this revival brings.

"I'm hoping that it just completely tickles them and makes them feel like they're able to laugh at these jokes a new," he said. "I think just lifting it up and showing it off. And not necessarily having to make it feel new but that it feels as fresh and funny as it did the first time you saw it."

Rhodes adds that often, our favorite movies from our youth are great because they get funnier and funnier with each watch. The best movies are the ones that people watch with their friends and laugh just as hard during the fiftieth watch as they did the first time. And with Spamalot, audiences are doing just that with 1,500 other people.

"There's something about the nostalgia mixed with the community of everybody enjoying this comedy again together, it's gonna make it so rowdy and bring them back to their college days of popping in a VHS tape and laughing with their roommates," he said.

That reaction from the audience is necessary for the show and, in Rhodes' opinion, solidifies the need for the communal spirit of live theater. The audience's response, their laughter, is as intricate as the set, score or goofy medieval costumes.

"Comedy doesn't work without the audience," he said. "In order to make a show like this work, you need that laughter, you need that response. [The audience] is a character in the play."

For Smagula, curtain call is his favorite part of the show — not because the show is over but because after final bows, the cast invites the audience to join them in singing a final go of the show's hit song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."

"With the state of the world, it's just a wonderful moment to be able to look out and see thousands of people singing the song smiling with joy in their hearts—it's a beautiful thing," he said.

Spamalot is playing at the St. James Theater. So just follow the sound of the coconuts to Camelot and prepare for the join in on the merry quest for the Grail.