Matthew Greer plays Sir Lancelot in the hilarious stage adaptation of “Monty Python\u2019s Spamalot” saga that has transitioned from film to stage. The show, a spoof of just about everything as we know it, is extremely irreverent. Harrison: What happened when you suddenly joined the show? Matthew Greer: I joined the tour about a year ago. When you come in as a replacement, you don\u2019t get a whole lot of direction. It\u2019s more like jumping on a train that\u2019s going very fast and trying to be funny at the same time. The material sort of demands that kind of freedom. If Eric Idle or Mike Nichols comes to see it, they have different takes on it. It\u2019s a juggling act. The material is such that anything can happen on stage. The sky is the limit as far as the zaniness goes. Hank Azaria originated the role of Sir Lancelot, and he is a very skilled improvisational actor. I have never had to do that before in my career as a classical actor! Harrison: Do you have to change your performance every night to fit in any improvisation and funny bits? Greer: It\u2019s open and it\u2019s my moment to come up with something. It\u2019s more fun for the audience if they can tell there\u2019s something new and unscheduled. The other actors are all waiting to see what I come up with, and then cringe in horror! The trick to doing comedy is being willing to fail! Harrison: How did the very funny gay marriage bit go over in other places such as Kansas? It\u2019s such a big issue in California. Greer: We were playing up in San Francisco and I asked if there was anything more we had to do about Prop 8. The line about gay marriage has been in the show since 2005. It continues to be controversial! Gurr as King Arthur Actor Christopher Gurr has the zany role of King Arthur, which he took over from TV\u2019s John O\u2019Hurley. Christopher has spent a lot of time in and around theater in St. Louis and Chicago and has taught drama as well. He has played other roles in the show, but is now enjoying playing King Arthur. Harrison: There was a wide range of ages in the audiences, and they all seemed to laugh hysterically. Christopher Gurr: It\u2019s one of the most diverse audiences I\u2019ve ever played for in terms of age. One of the sweet spots for the show are 9-year-old boys! It\u2019s just silly enough for them to enjoy it with their dads. It\u2019s like the dads are introducing them to the world of Python. There\u2019s arrested development in practically everyone! Harrison: Is King Arthur strong enough with his merry men? Gurr: He tries to be in charge of his troops, but in fact he is not in charge of his troops. Arthur is sort of a comedic punching bag, and that\u2019s good. Every comedy is based on knocking the pins out from under somebody in authority. Arthur believes he\u2019s doing the best he can, but they tell me otherwise, repeatedly! Dandridge as Guinevere The beautiful Merle Dandridge plays the Lady in the Lake. Harrison: When you auditioned for the show, were you familiar with the part of Lady of the Lake or did you just say, here I am! Merle Dandridge: I auditioned several times. The first time was when they were first developing it. I don\u2019t think they knew what the part was going to be. They wanted a lot of dancing, and I didn\u2019t think I could be a real chorus girl. I went and did \u2018Tarzan\u2019 back in 2005, and then came back to this show after the part was formed. Harrison: Did Mike Nichols (husband of Diane Sawyer) ever direct you to say lines in a certain way to capture the comedy? Dandridge: I think there were a couple of things he was very specific about. But Mike is not that kind of a director. It\u2019s about telling the truth. Broadway\/San Diego\u2019s “Monty Python\u2019s Spamalot” romps into the Civic Theater Sept. 8 through 13 downtown. For tickets, call (619) 570-1100 or (800) 982-2787.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Matthew Greer plays Sir Lancelot in the hilarious stage adaptation of “Monty Python\u2019s Spamalot” saga that has transitioned from film to stage. The show, a spoof of just about everything as we know it, is extremely irreverent. Harrison: What happened when you suddenly joined the show? Matthew Greer: I joined the tour about a year […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":284531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"\u2018Spamalot\u2019 actors chew on the zany musical","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11560],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-la-jolla-village-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}