The sound of hooves announces the arrival of King Arthur and his faithful squire, Patsy. But there is no horse for Arthur, who imitates the animal's gait while Patsy strikes a pair of coconuts together to mimic the noise. Later, Arthur and his knights of the Round Table must endure a barrage of insults from Frenchmen guarding a castle, and the Black Knight who, despite losing his arms and his legs in a duel, continues to want to fight,

These are just some of the moments from the zany 1975 film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, led by the predominantly British Monty Python comedy troupe of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones along with American Terry Gilliam. The feature film has since been turned into a musical, Spamalot, created in 2005. The cult sequences mentioned above are featured in the French adaptation, presented at the Théâtre de Paris from Saturday, September 23, and set to run until the end of the year, then again from mid-January to the end of April 2024.

In 2010, actor, director and producer Pierre-François Martin-Laval, aka Pef, best known for being one of the members of another comedy troupe, Les Robins des Bois (the Robinhoods), made a French adaptation of Spamalot. Ten years later, he is offering a revised and updated version, where beggars are encouraged to cross the village street to find work, and where you have to be on TikTok to have influence.

The original musical retains the compositions of John Du Prez and Eric Idle, the latter having written the libretto and song lyrics. For the French version, musicians are installed in the alcoves of the balconies near the Théâtre de Paris stage. Keyboards, winds, bass and drums are played live, in a rather music-hall and cabaret approach, with a few nods to gospel, opera parody and even military anthems. Pef, who plays Arthur, interprets the rhythm, absurd situations, innuendo and crude formulas of Idle's story and songs.

On stage, some 20 actors and actresses sing (also live), dance and sometimes take on several different roles. The troupe will make you smile, laugh, sometimes burst out, and is attentive to a collective work carried out with precision in its exchanges and gestures. This is evident in the show-stopping sequences: the arrival of the Lady of the Lake, played by Lauren Van Kempen, who moves with ease through a wide range of musical styles; the encouragements given to Arthur in the manner of American competitive cheerleading; the revue-style ballet of knights raising their legs. And, during the dialogue sequences, Arthur, Lancelot and Galahad have numerous encounters with various characters, including the mysterious knights who say "Ni!" or the enchanter perched on a swing.

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