The stage manager of ‘Spamalot’ leads Monty Pythonesque highjinks in Houston.
by Donalevan Maines
“Have you ever met a gay man who doesn’t love sparkling costumes, handsome knights and leggy showgirls? And what lesbian doesn’t like a flying cow?”
To Ken Davis, those are rhetorical questions. For more than a year, Davis has been the out production stage manager for the national touring company of a Tony Award-winning musical showcasing all those elements. Lovingly ripped off from the film classic Monty Python and The Holy Grail, the show, playing May 22-June 17 at the Hobby Center, is Spamalot.
“Cross Camelot with a funny word [spam] and you get Spamalot,” explains Davis, the Cincinnati native whose job is to keep every performance true to director Mike Nichols’ and writer (and original member of the famed Monty Python troupe) Eric Idle’s manic vision of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table as they embark on their quest for the Holy Grail.
“Flying cows, killer rabbits, flatulent Frenchman, our own show-stopping diva, and situations that are absolutely ridiculous–those are just a few of the reasons audiences everywhere are eating up Spamalot,” says Davis.
Spammed: The national touring production of Monty Python’s Spamalot , presented by Theatre Under The Stars and Cadillac Broadway Across America, opens on May 22 in Houston. TUTS hosts one of its Out@TUTS nights for GLBT musical-theater fans following the May 24 performance. Info: www.tuts.com. OutSmart is the Out@TUTS media sponsor.
Donalevan Maines regularly writes about entertainment for OutSmart.
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