I'm a vegetarian - not that keen on Spam

After a morning of looking round Camden Market and bridesmaid dress hunting on Oxford Street, Saturday afternoon saw us at the Palace Theatre for the matinee of Spamalot, which describes itself as 'lovingly ripped off from the motion picture; sets musical theatre back a thousand years'. The title comes from a line in one of the songs, where the knights sing 'we eat ham, and jam, and Spam a lot.'

It's the story of King Arthur (played by Sanjeev Bhaskar, who was excellent) and his Knights of the Round Table as they set out to find the Holy Grail - which turns out to be in a very interesting place, but I won't say where in case you go and see it. There are lots of laugh-out-loud moments in the show, like when King Arthur rides onto the stage with his servant Patsy, who's making clip-clip noises with two coconut halves because they don't have an actual horse, which gives rise to a discussion about where a Briton in the year 932 AD would get a coconut from (perhaps two swallows carried it from warmer climbs while migrating back to Britain for the summer), and there are some very blatant yet very funny digs at established Broadway/West End musicals, including 'The Song That Goes Like This', which includes all the elements of a Broadway song between the romantic leads - a sickly-sweet tune, lots of key changes and high notes, furtive looks and a kiss at the end.

I enjoyed this show, am glad I saw it and would recommend it if you're looking for the lighter side of West End musicals, but I wouldn't see it again. A musical has to move me in some way - either to tears, as in the case of shows like Blood Brothers, Les Miserables or Miss Saigon, or to a greater appreciation of someone or something, as Evita, Jersey Boys and Buddy do, or else it should uplift me, like The Lion King, Joseph and Hairspray (more on that one later) do. Spamalot did none of those things. It succeeded in its primary goal, which was to make me laugh, and it didn't pretend to do anything more than that, but for me, I'd need something else to make me see it again. But if you are looking for a less hardcore introduction to the West End, this is definitely right up your street.