Award-winning musical production promises plenty of laughs.

Malvern Theatre Society Director Dr. James Fry, Music Director Mr. Ed Liga, and the rest of the Malvern Theatre Society team are in the early stages of creating one of the Arts Department’s biggest annual events.

As announced in late November, Malvern Theatre Society will be performing Monty Python’s “Spamalot” during the first two weekends of March. The musical tells the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in a comedic and satirical way. The show includes lots of singing, dancing, and humor.

According to Theatrical Rights Worldwide, an organization that provides schools with musical licenses for their performances, the musical “features a bevy of beautiful show girls, not to mention cows, killer rabbits, and French people.”

“Monty Python’s ‘Spamalot’ was based loosely on the movie ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail,’” Liga said. “[Monty Python] started as a television show that [became] more and more popular throughout Great Britain… they were like Saturday Night Live.”

The show makes fun of the entirety of English history. King Arthur’s character is now an egotistical king that does not even ride a horse. Lancelot transforms from the proud knight everyone knows and adores, to being sensitive and “homicidally brave,” according to stageagent.com.

“People of my generation grew up watching Monty Python constantly,” Liga said. “It was kind of racy humor. They made fun of everything and everybody”

Senior Patrick Sayers said that he and the rest of the cast like the show that was picked and the change in tone. “It is a lot less serious. This is like a comedy,” he said. Sayers was cast as Patsy, King Arthur’s assistant/squire.

Spamalot is Sayers’s last show with Malvern’s theater program. He has done every show since his freshman year, eight in total.

“It’s still fun, but it’s a little bit sad because I won’t be able to do any more MTS shows after this,” he said. “This has been the biggest thing I have done in high school for the past four years.”

Junior Kyle Leonard was cast in the lead of “King Arthur.” Other Malvern leads include senior Christian Franck as “Sir Lancelot,” and junior Blake Cunningham as “Sir Robin.”

Last year MTS performed Les Misérables Student Edition. The show had a very serious tone meant to show the horrors of poverty and oppression in the nineteenth century leading up to the French revolution.

”[Spamalot] contrasts to the seriousness of Les Misérables. You know Les Mis was great, but this is going to be more light hearted and fun,” Liga said.

The extreme change in tone may have been intentional.

“I think it was a consideration. I think Dr. Fry wanted to include as many guys in the show as possible. He wanted something a large group of guys could get into,” Liga said.

Another big change this year is that “Spamalot” features plenty of dancing. “Last year [Les Miserables] they literally just stood there and sang,” Liga said.  

Girls who auditioned for the show have some mixed feelings about the selection.

“In this year’s show there is a lot more dancing,” Academy of Notre Dame sophomore Alexandra Battisti said. “I think that the shows themselves could not be more different.”

The show’s cast are mostly male parts and there is only a single lead female part, according to Battisti. “I’m a bit disappointed. We will all be competing for just one part,” she said.

This is Battisti’s second year of being involved with MTS. She has been doing theatre for five years in total, in and outside MTS.

“We have a ton of talented seniors and juniors, so for me since I’m a sophomore it is a bit of a disadvantage because it is so competitive,” Battisti said. “But I’m excited for it. I like how upbeat and humorous the show is.”

Liga said Fry has accounted for girls in need of roles. “Dr. Fry is going to allow ways for there to be more than one girl, but literally the way it’s scripted there is one female part,” he said. “There are girls in the chorus called the ‘Laker Girls.’”

Auditions are finished and rehearsals begin in January. Dance rehearsals will be on Saturdays, and Liga will hold music rehearsals on Tuesdays and Fridays. Fry will be working with the cast on days in between.

“It’s nice to see a big group of guys and I hope they enjoy themselves, but it’s going to be some work,” Liga said. “It’s going to be a fun time and a different kind of show.”