Review: Spamalot

My employer has a recreation club of sorts which three months ago offered discounted tickets to see the road show of "Spamalot". Since friends had highly recommended the Broadway production, I'm a big Monty Python fan and the tickets were (slightly) cheaper than at the regular box office, I grabbed two for last night's show.

I had no idea last night's performance at the National Theater was the closing night in that venue, the end of a month-long run. I believe the house was full --I couldn't see any empty seats, although our tickets were in the balcony so we limited viewing of the mezzanine and orchestra levels.

In all, it was a fun evening and well worth the effort to attend. Hey, it's Monty Python... how can you go wrong? Wit, silliness and an irreverent rip on the ridiculously improbable tale of King Arthur and the knights of the round table, with just enough inside jokes for regular theater queens to have a laugh and a some minor borrowings from other Monty Python productions. All it needed was a sideways reference to a Norwegian blue parrot pining for the fjords and all would have been complete.

It struck me on the way out that many --maybe a third-- of the audience weren't born yet when the movie was released years ago; I have no idea how familiar the younger generation is with the movie these days. I may go looking for a DVD set of the TV shows & movies for a weekend of viewing and nostalgia.

Review: Spamalot

My employer has a recreation club of sorts which three months ago offered discounted tickets to see the road show of "Spamalot". Since friends had highly recommended the Broadway production, I'm a big Monty Python fan and the tickets were (slightly) cheaper than at the regular box office, I grabbed two for last night's show.

I had no idea last night's performance at the National Theater was the closing night in that venue, the end of a month-long run. I believe the house was full --I couldn't see any empty seats, although our tickets were in the balcony so we limited viewing of the mezzanine and orchestra levels.

In all, it was a fun evening and well worth the effort to attend. Hey, it's Monty Python... how can you go wrong? Wit, silliness and an irreverent rip on the ridiculously improbable tale of King Arthur and the knights of the round table, with just enough inside jokes for regular theater queens to have a laugh and a some minor borrowings from other Monty Python productions. All it needed was a sideways reference to a Norwegian blue parrot pining for the fjords and all would have been complete.

It struck me on the way out that many --maybe a third-- of the audience weren't born yet when the movie was released years ago; I have no idea how familiar the younger generation is with the movie these days. I may go looking for a DVD set of the TV shows & movies for a weekend of viewing and nostalgia.

WTF?!

Prompted by otterpop58's note about the upcoming DC rodeo, I went to the ASGRA web site to see if I can order tickets yet. Alas, no, but what really caught my eye was the following:

"NOTICE: The fairgrounds will be charging a $10.00 parking fee. This fee is not included in the cost of your rodeo ticket and is outside the control of ASGRA."

The fairgrounds are 12 miles from my door and there isn't public transit between home & there. I suppose I could kill a couple of extra hours to drive or take public transit into downtown DC, then hop the ASGRA-provided shuttle bus back out to the suburbs --past our own house-- to the fairgrounds. Or I could hope for a parking space somewhere along Rockville Pike outside the fairgrounds. More likely, however, is that I'll simply skip the ticket package and pay at the gate for the Saturday events only, skipping Sunday's events.

On the good side, I've found out about this now instead of at the gate in September.

WTF?!

Prompted by otterpop58's note about the upcoming DC rodeo, I went to the ASGRA web site to see if I can order tickets yet. Alas, no, but what really caught my eye was the following:

"NOTICE: The fairgrounds will be charging a $10.00 parking fee. This fee is not included in the cost of your rodeo ticket and is outside the control of ASGRA."

The fairgrounds are 12 miles from my door and there isn't public transit between home & there. I suppose I could kill a couple of extra hours to drive or take public transit into downtown DC, then hop the ASGRA-provided shuttle bus back out to the suburbs --past our own house-- to the fairgrounds. Or I could hope for a parking space somewhere along Rockville Pike outside the fairgrounds. More likely, however, is that I'll simply skip the ticket package and pay at the gate for the Saturday events only, skipping Sunday's events.

On the good side, I've found out about this now instead of at the gate in September.