It wasn’t an everyday performance of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. You could tell because people were clapping along.
Eric Idle was there, so the orchestra was playing the “Liberty Bell March,” the John Philip Sousa military march that Idle and his Monty Python co-conspirators appropriated as their theme song. This was the world premier of “Not the Messiah,” Idle and co-writer John Du Prez’s follow-up to “Spamalot” – fortunately, though, the Roy Thomson hall wasn’t decked out in Broadway-style set dressing. The concert hall kept its everyday woodwind-meets-giant-xylophone décor, with no accoutrements. It’s the performance that made the place seem different (and, indeed, the audience, some of whom were in tuxedos and evening gowns, others in jeans and Reeboks).
“Not the Messiah” was an oratorio, complete with orchestra, choir and soloists (including one other “Spamalot” alum). But the show doesn’t start out that way – Idle encouraged Peter Oundjian – the orchestra’s conductor and, oddly enough, his cousin – to play three short classical pieces before the intermission. It’s an effort, Idle said later, to combine classical music with popular comedy, increasing its accessibility to those of us who attended hoping for jokes about rear admirals and transsexual lumberjacks. The challenge isn’t lost on him.
“How hard is it?” he asks at the Luminato opening gala, beverage in hand. “Well, we’re following Elgar and Beethoven. Not too (expletive deleted) hard.”
Not too expletive-deleted hard at all, despite Idle’s sarcasm. Following the basic plot of Python’s film “The Life of Brian,” “Not the Messiah” opens on a deceptively apocalyptic note. Soon enough, though, it evolves into what we all want – endless jokes about history and sex, religion and the psychology of idiots. Nor does the music itself disappoint; Peppered with sly references to the classical and the baroque, it slips from apocalyptic to doo-wop with no effort, delving into gospel, klezmer, and one song about the People’s Front of Judea that sounds like Ennio Morricone went on a weekend bender with Stephen Sondheim and consequently developed a ridiculous sense of self-parody.
And all of that happens before the tartan-clad bagpipers show up.
From there it’s nonstop: Lots of flamboyant flourishes and finishes. Monty Python’s “Lumberjack Song” re-visted. Christopher Sieber (who played Gallahad in Spamalot) sings the praises of crucifixion. And the most singularly odd impression of Bob Dylan ever attempted in a symphony hall.
At the end, there are curtain calls. Many curtain calls. When asked how many there were, Idle later said he’d lost count.
“Not the Messiah” is playing at the Roy Thomson Hall Saturday, June 2 and Monday, June 4.
