How Drury Lane Oak Brook snagged 'Spamalot'
For Drury Lane Oak Brook Artistic Director Bill Osetek, it was love at first sight.
The first time he saw “Spamalot,” in its 2004 pre-Broadway run in Chicago, he laughed harder than he had at the theater in years. Sure, he had liked the movie the spoof was based on, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”
“But this was something else,” Osetek says. “I was sitting next to this elderly couple. And they were laughing so hard, we were laughing so hard, it was like we were laughing together. It really brought us together, all that laughter.”
So imagine Osetek's delight when someone from the company that represented the Tony Award-winning musical, Theatrical Rights Worldwide, called him up out of the blue and offered the show to Drury Lane Oak Brook.
“This had never happened to me before,” Osetek says. “Usually when we go after a show we have to call up the agents and we say we would like to do, say, ‘Hello, Dolly!,' in December 2001 and they have to look to see if anyone else is doing it then in the area.”
Drury Lane competes with theaters like the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire and with touring productions of shows for the right to put on a specific musical.
But the folks at Theatrical Rights Worldwide had a good relationship with Drury Lane going back to the theater's production of another show they represented, “Curtains.” That musical by the same team that wrote the music for “Cabaret” was a hit at Drury Lane — and sent a lot of royalties back to the agents.
“‘Spamalot' is still on tour,” Osetek explains. “But the agent struck a deal with the company doing the tour. They said to them, ‘We need to start to make money back to this show. Would you allow five regional productions if it is not in competition with the touring show?'”
The touring company agreed, and Chicago happened to be one of the regions that would not be hosting a tour of “Spamalot” soon. Which is how Drury Lane is doing a nearly brand-new Broadway show.
“It was really an honor to be asked,” Osetek says, adding, “I knew immediately I wanted to direct it.”
To prepare to direct the show, which follows the comic adventures of King Arthur and his knights on a quest to find the Holy Grail, Osetek watched the movie a lot. He also drew on his memories of other productions he had seen, both in Chicago and on Broadway.
He was determined to do what the original producers did. That is, he wanted to create a show that captured the spirit of the Broadway production, but didn't simply re-create the look of it.
“I am a Catholic. I almost kill myself to avoid stealing,” Osetek says. “We worked so hard to get a great cast. It took months. But it has paid off.”
“You know, the musical is not better than the movie,” he adds. “It is paradoxical. The music is good; it is a great musical, but it makes fun of great musicals. It pays homage to ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail' — and it mocks it. It is really extraordinary.”
And very, very funny.
• “Spamalot” runs through March 6 at Drury Lane Oak Brook, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace. For tickets, call the box office at (630) 530-0111, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 or visit drurylaneoakbrook.com.