Monty Python Live Mostly - One Down, Five To Go

The cheese shop is open again, the dead parrot reanimated, and countless other metaphors come to mind like a horde of scuttling Terry Gilliam animations. Yes, the long-awaited return and final hurrah of Britain’s, nay the world’s, best-known sketch troupe is here.

The hype was staggered beautifully with tickets drip-released, two press conferences staged and floor-to-ceiling press coverage.

As it is turns out, the production itself nearly merits all the fuss. The revival is, at times, a full-on, high energy effort where you would fear for the endurance of the septuagenarian performers if the spectacle weren’t so diverting.

Monty Python Live Mostly is, however, diverting for better and for worse. So, on one hand you get swept away by the energetic Arlene Phillips-choreographed song and dance numbers, but, on the other, the creaky pace of some of the sketches, such as The Spanish Inquisition and Blackmail, is a flatline to contrast with all that high-kicking. You do start to wonder if sketch resurrection is such a good idea.

This is even more the case when you have original footage to make comparisons with. Yes, it’s great to be reminded of the brilliance of sketches such as The Internationale Philosophie the Philosophers World Cup where the game played is purely theoretical, and the ball isn’t even played until Archimedes has his Eureka moment. However, regular recourse to video clips actually interrupts the Python’s segue savoir-faire, that showed itself in the TV series but only in fits and starts tonight.

The erratic feel is also apparent in the disparate energy levels of the five main protagonists, although this is something that starts to even out between them. Sometimes less than perfect moments give way to the giggles, and the sense that the Pythons are largely enjoying themselves buoys proceedings.

This is a spectacle that inevitably feels it needs to pay homage to the old favourites, usually with fairly minor updates. That this is not a show for critics, but for fans, was said before the run and was made more obvious by the early reactions to the show. It’s much harder judging a spectacle than it is a show, especially one where the dated feel of some of the sketches is part of its charm.

Should it be both spectacle and show? Should it be done at all? It’s a fair question. But it has been done, and you would be hard pushed to suggest a way to tamper with comedy that would satisfy the fans’ overriding requirement – nostalgia.

Julian Hall