Monty Python spoof 'Spamalot' hits Chrysler

When she sings "The Diva's Lament," it isn't so much a lament as a seduction.

As part of the wacky, irreverent musical "Monty Python's Spamalot," Esther Stilwell modestly admits that "all the characters in the original Monty Python things were males, but they can't have a Broadway musical without women. That's where I come in."

She plays The Lady of the Lake, which, in the King Arthur legend, is a mystical creature who commands respect. In this version she is somewhat of a stripper, backed by a chorus of dancing girls who belt out a song harder than any siren might.

"The Lady of the Lake is mentioned, but she was never actually seen in the movie 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail,' " Stilwell said when she was reached at her hotel in Ottawa, Canada, last week.

The musical opens Tuesday at Norfolk's Chrysler Hall for eight performances.

"There is no real logic to the role," she admitted, "but I try to dream up some kind of back story in order to pretend I'm an actress. The real charm of the part is that, musically, I can go all over the place with her. There's some of Ethel Merman and some of Amy Winehouse, and I can let out my gospel chops with some of Whitney Houston. Musically, she's a varied maze, which keeps it new.

"That's important when you're doing the show eight times a week over a period of two years. It always seems fresh because it can be changed a bit from night to night - just a bit."

"Spamalot" won the 2005 Tony for best musical on Broadway, where it was directed by Mike Nichols, the Academy Award-winning director of "The Graduate" (1967).

The British comedy team (plus one American) known as Monty Python became famous on television before producing several movies. The style of humor is, to say the least, unique.

"From the beginning, I knew that very important theatrical giants were a part of creating this show," Stilwell said, "but I wondered about the Monty Python angle. Frankly, I was not a fan. I always thought that brand of humor was for little boys or, maybe, men who hadn't grown up.

"There is that, but this version is also for theater people. It has lots of satiric touches, such as a song that spoofs the repetitive nature of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals, complete with chandelier and boat. There's plenty for both the Python people and the theater people."

Stilwell, a native of Arkansas, studied theater at the University of Oklahoma and in an intensive Shakespeare course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. "I never was really the struggling actress in New York because I got a job right away."

She went to sea for Disney Cruise Lines playing Belle and Pocahontas between Caribbean island stops. She lived in Tokyo for a year as a performer at the Japanese Disneyland.

Then, she got the national tour of "Cats" with the coveted role of the aging "glamour cat," Grizabella, singing the show's famous "Memory."

Just 27, she admitted, "I play a bit older than I am, at least so far."

She's been with this tour for two years and might settle in New York early next year to look for new roles, hopefully staying in one city.

"Living out of a suitcase for some five years is a challenge, but I have a little freedom because I have a car and actually drive from city to city. That way, I get to see some of the country."

Her costumes as the "Lady" are beaded and weigh some 20 pounds each. "There are three in each act, and it's a real workout. If she really came out of the lake, she would have sunk. Lots of beads."

In legend, as well as in this version, the Lady of the Lake's job is to give a sword to Arthur and to make him king, as well as to inspire him and his ragtag knights to go on a quest for the Holy Grail. The absurd comedy involves killer rabbits and the famed "Knights Who Say Ni."

"It's actually nice that I get to step outside the show itself and talk to the audience. In a way, I'm the one character who maybe suspects that it's all absurd, and I join the audience in wondering about it."

She loves to hit those high notes for the audience, but she's perhaps more worried whether they're laughing.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com