The cast of "Monty Python's Spamalot" enjoys a joyful moment. The 2005 Tony-winning Best Musical came to Ames on Saturday (1/14) and Cedar Falls on Sunday (1/15/12). (Scott Suchman)

By Diana Nollen/ SourceMedia Group

CEDAR FALLS — Being a Monty Python fan from the “Flying Circus” days, I knew I would love “Spamalot” a lot. But the Broadway national touring musical swinging through the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center on Sunday exceeded my wildest expectations.

I knew I was in good company for the matinee, when the second “bit” in the show (the chanting monks) drew hoots and howls from the capacity crowd. That reaction just snowballed for the next two hours of magnificent silliness as King Arthur turned his motley recruits into dashing knights of the Round Table and embarked on a quest for the Holy Grail.

Right in the midst of all the song-and-dance revelry was Monticello native and University of Northern Iowa graduate Jacob Smith, as the handsome Sir Dennis Galahad, the menacing Black Knight and the macho Neanderthal father of prancing Prince Herbert.

Smith was truly wonderful in each portrayal, wrapping his rich baritone around his knightly silly songs, his not-dead-yet Black Knight skewered onto a castle door and his blustering bully father. He drew the biggest roar, of course, during the final bows.

Every actor is roar-worthy, from Arthur Rowan as the self-assured King Arthur and Brittany Woodrow as the bewitching Lady of the Lake to her scantily clad Laker Girls and Eric Idle as God. OK, so we don’t get to see Idle, but his unmistakable voice booms from above as he admonished the knights not to look up his skirt.

Monticello native Jacob Smith, who spends most of "Spamalot" as dashing Sir Galahad, dons a different suit of armor to play the Black Knight, who loses all his limbs to King Arthur's sword, Excalibur. (Scott Suchman)

Idle, one of the original Monty Python sketch comedy crew, wrote the script and cowrote the music for this stage version of the 1974 classic film, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” Many of the best-loved lines and naughty bits are captured onstage and surrounded by hilarious song and dance lampoons, tap dances, soft shoes, high-kicking Las Vegas lovelies in their smalls  (that’s Brit-speak for lingerie) and the Fisch Schlapping Finns who start the show in colorful lunacy because they thought the narrator said “Finland” instead of “Britain.”

So many moments are just showstopping hilarious, but perhaps the greatest joy is hearing the way Woodrow not only knocks every song out of the theater, but seeing her channel Cher, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion and all those other divas with a penchant for plugging 10,000 notes between the two written notes actually written in the score. She displays a tremendous range of singing and acting depth, as well as comic timing.

The scenic, costume and lighting design are as broad and colorful as the characters they encase. Animation tossed liberally throughout adds hilarious Pythonian touches, including the lyrics for a curtain-call singalong of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” That’s something this tour-de-farce does so well.