Live Performance Review: Monty Python Live (Mostly),  The O2, London, Wednesday 02.07.2014, 18:00

This one I see as my dad's fault as he introduced me to the wonders of Python as a child. A mate and myself had found it relatively straight forward to get tickets and went with contained excitement and intrepidation. 

I had watched the BBC's Imagine programme broadcast on the Sunday night before the show and had my reservations increased by knowing that there was going to be a chorus line of singing dancers. 

We were sat quite high up, though close to the stage, the view felt acceptable. The chorus line was well used and did not irritate as I had expected. Having said that there were a couple of 'performances' that the chorus line did that I did not quite get and which appeared to me to be not as well thought out as the others. 

Despite doors opening at 18:00, the show began at 19:30 and once you removed the interval the performers were on stage for a good 2 & 1/2 hours. 

There was a fair amount of use of screens. As well as enabling those in the cheap seats to see what was happening on stage, the screens were also used to work into the show live action and animated clips from the t.v. shows. This enabled the involving of some skits which could never have been managed live and the posthumous involvement of Graham Chapman. The level of use of screens along with the chorus line was also clearly used to enable enough time for costume changes.

There was a good mix of skits and funny sing-along-a-songs from the t.v. shows and films. Almost all of what they did I was fairly familiar with though they did nice updates such as going straight from 'dead parrot' to 'cheese shop' and from 'accountancy/lion taming' to 'lumberjack song'. It was also a delight to see the likes of 'Nudge, Nudge', 'Spam', 'The Spanish Inquisition', 'An Argument' 'Albatross' & 'Four Yorkshire Men' being performed live.         

Of the five remaining members it was clear that Palin and Gilliam were the most sprightly though all of them did appear to be making an actual effort. It was also nice to see Carol Cleveland still being roped in to cover the ladies parts that the chaps don't cover. 

The stage was impressive in it's Gilliamesque appearance and the show was well strung together. The show did not drag at all as it moved from skit to song to dance and so on. There was a high degree of silliness as you would hope and it was nice to see the likes of Cleese and Palin struggling to keep it together. I was aware of having a beaming grin on my face throughout. I would not say it was excellent though it was very good, I very much enjoyed and was glad I went. 

Rating: 08/10.