Sellers is not to be confused with the American theater and opera director Peter Sellars, who worked all over Europe but lived in Los Angeles, until his untimely death from a motorcycle accident in 2001. Mr. Sellars wasn't on the motorcycle at the time. He was driving the Hummer that struck the motorcyclist. That's what I read. In his distraction, Mr. Sellars drove the Hummer into a post that led to his reported demise, though I never heard anything about a funeral, and nor did any of my friends.

I was, however,  at his memorial service at the Anshe Emes Synagogue on Pico which was attended by Mayor James Hahn and County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, but it might have been for somebody else. But Peter Sellars name kept coming up, that's for sure. Or maybe it was a service honoring Mr. Sellars' latest opera, an experimental version of Madame Butterfly staged in a warehouse under fluorescent lights, with everybody dressed in U.S. Army battle fatigues. I saw it in Paris. The singing was excellent, as it was in Spamalot.


Star of Spamalot, Rick Holmes. Photo by Joan Marcus

The star of Spamalot is French Inspector Jacques Cousteau, fantastically played by Rick Holmes. His picture is the photo accompanying this review.

Holmes has all the details of the late, great comedian Peter Sellers' tics and tacs down to a tee. Holmes speaks with a bloated French accent - just like Sellers --  that was amazing. He stands in front of a French castle saying things like, "I fahrrrrt in your zhenneral dirrrecteeeooon," causing his enemies to run for their lives. The crowd around me was peeing themselves at this. The garrulous French inspector was hard on the case, looking to find a misplaced Broadway show.

There was a huge emphasis on and mockery of the French-British cultural hostilities - just like in the Pink Panther series, and the Goon shows. This is obviously one of Mr. Idle's underlying concerns that he's spend his career giving comedic-artistic expression to. 

The "Spam" of the title is a somewhat cryptic allusion to the canned-quality of pop culture references when they get so gleefully recycled, with little purpose in mind.

TV star John O'Hurley wandered around for much of the action looking like some Medieval soldier. I don't know what that had to do with the plot. Some story-line issues clearly need to be revisited.

I also didn't like that this soldier didn't have a horse. There was a guy named Patsy (Jeff Dumas) who kept clapping coconuts together to make the sound of a horse hooves on cobblestone. They should have had a real horse. With the budget of this show, it's obvious they could have afforded it. A real horse would have been funnier.

Merle Dandridge plays a lady named The Lady of the Lake. She's really, really good, especially when she's not wearing much. She performed songs and impersonations straight out of the French cabaret (a Broadway antecedent) , in keeping with Mr. Idle's main theme.  

Ben Whitely conducts the orchestra, which produces sounds to accompany the singing with almost perfect coordination. Graham Bowen is the dance captain and Mike Nichols the director.

MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT | By Eric Idle & John Duprez | Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Avenue, downtown; performs thorugh September 6. http://centertheatregroup.org

Editor's Note: I plead with my staff and readers and to all of the creative teams involved with this production for your patience and forbearance. Mr. Merkin's reviews will improve.

CHECK BACK HERE MONDAY AFTERNOON FOR REVIEWS OF: Kill Me, Deadly at Theatre of Note; A Midsummer Night's Dream presented by the Veterans Center for the Performing Arts & United States Veterans Artists Alliance; Justin Tanner's Wife Swappers at the Zephyr; Nevermore, starring Jeffrey Combs, at the Steve Allen Theatre; Paul Leaf's Mutiny at Port Chicago at Santa Monica's Ruskin Theatre; Howard Korder's Search and Destroy, at Hollywood's The Complex; also in Hollywood, Carved in Stone at Theatre Asylum; The Hostgage at Theatre Banshee in Burbank;  Juliette Marshall's You Look Good on Paper at Improv Comedy Lab in Hollywood; and Diana Son's Stop Kiss, presented by Rogue Machine in Los Angeles.