That sound of clicking coconuts in the distance is not a subtropical breeze — it's the cast of Monty Python's Spamalot. The touring Broadway production (seen last year at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center) continues to play theaters across the country and arrives this weekend at Ruth Eckerd on its quest for a merry audience and eternal life. Appropriated from the 1975 cult-favorite motion picture, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, this 2005 Tony Award-winning musical comedy packs it all in: catapulted cows, killer rabbits, farting Frenchmen and a quadriplegic black knight. Eric Idle — an original member of the Monty Python comedy sketch show and co-creator of fictional Beatles parody band The Rutles — adapted the tale of King Arthur's bumbling entourage with composer John Du Prez. Through March 23, 8 p.m. Thurs.-Fri., 2 and 8 p.m. Sat., 2 and 7 p.m. Sun., 1111 N. McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater, $35-$75, 727-791-7400, rutheckerdhall.com.
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2008.