Spamalot

Python fans will need no encouragement to trot along to the King's this week, but the long-awaited arrival of Spamalot in Scotland will also delight anyone with a love or indeed a loathing of stage musicals.

An unholy send-up of the genre complete with bargain-basement Las Vegas excess and elements of pure pantomime, this is not the cult curiosity many might imagine – those who enjoyed The Producers but wished for a higher death toll and a few more fart jokes will be keeping Eric Idle in royalty cheques for many years to come.

Prior knowledge of French taunters, African swallows and knights who says “ni” certainly enhances the experience, but is by no means essential, as the show's irresistible spirit of silliness leaves those who tittered during act one hooting with laughter after the interval.

Marcus Brigstocke, better known as a stand-up comic than an actor, makes a commanding yet endearing King Arthur, and Hayley Tamaddon's Lady of the Lake is a pushy diva to be reckoned with, but Graham MacDuff is the show's shining star. His primary role, Sir Lancelot, is guaranteed to be lots of fun, but he also pops up in many other guises, bringing immaculate comic timing each time and in his last incarnation a special significance to Glasgow.

In fact, the whole show is remarkably fresh and topical, with local references woven in rather than tacked on.

With a libretto this funny it's crucial that the audience can make out the punchlines, and director Christopher Luscombe and his hard-working cast deserve huge credit for combining superb diction with a mischievous yet life-affirming spirit of fun.

A version of this review first appeared in The Herald.