Fans of “Spamalot,” “Shrek” and Monty Python will rejoice at the silliness that is “Galavant,” the musical-comedy fairy tale extravaganza debuting Jan. 4 on ABC.
Swords, songs and shtick are the selling points. This tale contains heroic knights, a villainous king but no damsels in distress — rather a pair of strong women, one of whom is, according to the lyrics, “tending bitch-ward.”
Self-indulgent but packed with great cameos and kitschy production numbers, the whole affair could have been a tight 90 minutes. Instead it’s flamboyantly self-referential and clocks in at four hours.
will air Sunday nights through January locally on KMGH.
Composers Alan Menkin and Glenn Slater (“The Little Mermaid”) and creator-writer Dan Fogelman (“The Neighbors,” “Crazy, Stupid Love”) have concocted a wild send-up of the knight-in-shining-armor genre, full of playful anachronisms, innuendo and joyfully ridiculous lyrics.
“And so begins our plot/Of which there’s quite a lot…”
Some of the song-and-dance bits are reminiscent of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” seemingly intended for audience participation. (“Dance, dance until we die” is catchy.) Others are gently rude, describing an armored knight as “a high and mighty jackass in a can/ there’s nothing ruder than.”
Beyond wordplay, there’s joy in the casting: looks the part and is in good voice in the title role but it’s (“Psych”) who lights up the screen as evil and sometimes fey King Richard, who has stolen Galavant’s love, Madalena (Mallory Jansen). Omundson’s enthusiasm is infectious.
A throng of supporting players includes Ricky Gervais as a wizard named Xanax, “Downton Abbey’s” as an hilarious, tuneful pirate king, John Stamos as a handsome knight and Rutger Hauer as the king’s vengeful brother.
No medieval trope is left unturned. Watch for the singing monks, including Al Yankovic, with jazz hands.
The worst number is a song called “Oy, What a Knight,” filled with Jewish jokes and reminiscent of the Yiddish-filled Mad magazine Broadway parodies of yore. (As in those parodies, the characters in “Galavant” often are self-aware, commenting on the narrative as it unspools.)
Clearly, Python-like satire isn’t everyone’s taste, but the gags are workmanlike. Who can resist such dialogue as King Richard heralding Galavant’s arrival:
“He’ll be here tonight as the sun has cast its last shadow upon the Earth and the crescent moon has risen above the eastern ridge.”
“So, like nine o’clock?” asks henchman Gareth (Vinnie Jones).
The script reworks the same gag with different flowery descriptions of the evening hour, not twice but three times.
All that’s missing are serf and knight characters running across the horizon rhythmically clapping coconut halves to impersonate clopping horse hooves.
Viewers will either eat it up or steer clear.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830, jostrow@denverpost.com or twitter.com/ostrowdp
