History Theatre / Spamalot

** The Quest turns out to be to put on a musical in [insert city location] "but not an Creator/AndrewLloydWebber [[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera musical]]"[[note]]In the 2023 revival, they instead take a dig at [[JukeboxMusical Jukebox Musicals]][[/note]]. The cast proceed to cut themselves with their swords and kill themselves to a mock-Webber tune, or just cover their ears and scream. "The Song That Goes Like This" is also a dig at Webber's sentimental love ballads, complete with a gondola and a chandelier. In the 2023 revival, in "You Won't Succeed on Broadway", during a dance break, a marquee appears showing several famous Jewish Broadway personalities such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Mel Brooks, Stephen Sondheim, Joel Grey, and ending with former Congressman George Santos, a reference to both his claim of his grandmother being a holocaust survivor as well as his own claim of being one of the producers of ''Theatre/SpiderManTurnOffTheDark''.

** The Quest turns out to be to put on a musical in [insert city location] "but not an Creator/AndrewLloydWebber [[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera musical]]"[[note]]In the 2023 revival, they instead take a dig at JukeboxMusicals[[/note]]. The cast proceed to cut themselves with their swords and kill themselves to a mock-Webber tune, or just cover their ears and scream. "The Song That Goes Like This" is also a dig at Webber's sentimental love ballads, complete with a gondola and a chandelier. In the 2023 revival, in "You Won't Succeed on Broadway", during a dance break, a marquee appears showing several famous Jewish Broadway personalities such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Mel Brooks, Stephen Sondheim, Joel Grey, and ending with former Congressman George Santos, a reference to both his claim of his grandmother being a holocaust survivor as well as his own claim of being one of the producers of ''Theatre/SpiderManTurnOffTheDark''.

* TakeThat: The Quest turns out to be to put on a musical in [insert city location] "but not an Creator/AndrewLloydWebber [[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera musical]]"[[note]]In the 2023 revival, they instead take a dig at Creator/{{Disney}}[[/note]]. The cast proceed to cut themselves with their swords and kill themselves to a mock-Webber tune, or just cover their ears and scream. "The Song That Goes Like This" is also a dig at Webber's sentimental love ballads, complete with a gondola and a chandelier.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Creator/SteveMartin's prerecorded interpretation of God keeps his American accent.

The 'plot' is introduced by [[InteractiveNarrator the historian]], who gives an overview of the setting: medieval England. Myth/KingArthur and his servant Patsy arrive on the scene in search of knights for the round table. They find Robin, a plague victim collector, and Lancelot (who is trying to dispose of a man who turns out to be "Not Dead Yet") and convince them to join the quest. Next, Arthur convinces the politically active peasant Dennis to become Sir Galahad, with help from the Lady of the Lake. Somewhere, they also pick up Sir Bedevere (and the aptly-named Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Show). After arriving in a UsefulNotes/LasVegas-inspired Camelot, the knights are contacted by the voice of God (a recording of John Cleese or in the touring production, Eric Idle) who wants them to search for the Holy Grail. After some silly encounters and surprising discoveries, Arthur and the knights end up finding the Grail in an unexpected place.

* TakeThat: The Quest turns out to be to put on a musical in [insert city location] "but not an Creator/AndrewLloydWebber [[Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera musical]]". The cast proceed to cut themselves with their swords and kill themselves to a mock-Webber tune, or just cover their ears and scream. "The Song That Goes Like This" is also a dig at Webber's sentimental love ballads, complete with a gondola and a chandelier.

* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: The original film had an infamously [[AntiClimax anticlimactic ending]] due to budget constraints, with Arthur and his men getting arrested before they could retrieve the Holy Grail, after Robin and Galahad had already died trying to cross the Bridge of Death. In the show, they actually do find the Grail in the end, no major character dies, and every character gets their own happy ending (Arthur marries [[spoiler:Guinevere]] while Lancelot marries [[spoiler:Herbert]], and Robin pursues a successful career in musical theatre).

** Some versions have Arthur try to rush the pit, but gets held back by Patsy.

* ManlyGay: [[spoiler:Lancelot]], who up until then gave no hints of his sexuality, and was unaware of it himself. ([[AllThereInTheManual Unless you buy the more expensive playbook]], in which case his dream is explicitly stated to be to open an fabric store.)

*** The 2015 UK touring version had them add the ENTIRE first verse and chorus of "Itsy bitsy, teenie weenie, yellow polka dot bikini" in at least one production, while stand up comedian Joe Pasquale, who played Arthur, looked increasingly gobsmacked. Luckily for him it's a well-known song so he could remember the lyrics.

* SightGag:
** "Hay!" from "You Won't Succeed On Broadway".
** Lancelot's banana.
** "Skip a little."

* StylisticSuck: When the HolyHandGrenade kills the KillerRabbit, the set piece that's in front of it falls over revealing the rabbit's puppeteer. This is clearly intentional, because the puppeteer and the knights stare at each other for a moment, before he [[LookADistraction points behind them]] and runs offstage as the knights turn around.

** Similarly, the "England"/"Finland" confusion that starts a BaitAndSwitchOpening about a fake Finnish play.

* AdaptedOut: Several of the minor characters from the movie don't appear in the stage show, such as the three-headed knight, the Old Man from Scene 24, and the ladies of Castle Anthrax. Some of their lines have been given to other characters. Some of the female ensemble members in the original production and tours, however, wear costumes directly modeled after Zoot, Dingo, and the ladies of Castle Anthrax in some scenes, particularly during the song Find Your Grail.

* AdaptedOut: Several of the minor characters from the movie don't appear in the stage show, such as the three-headed knight, the Old Man from Scene 24, and the ladies of Castle Anthrax. Some of their lines have been given to other characters. Some of the female ensemble members in the original production and tours, however, wear costumes directly modeled after Zoot, Dingo, and the ladies of Castle Anthrax.

* AdaptedOut: Several of the minor characters from the movie don't appear in the stage show, such as the three-headed knight, the Old Man from Scene 24, and the ladies of Castle Anthrax. Some of their lines have been given to other characters.

* AdaptationalSexuality: Prince Herbert, in the original movie, was AmbiguouslyGay / CampStraight. In the musical, he is confirmed as gay. [[spoiler:As is Sir Launcelot, who marries him in the end.]]

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: "Finland" refers to the titular country as Scandinavian, even though Finland isn't actually a part of Scandinavia, which comprises of Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

* AudienceParticipation: The knights discover that the Grail's location is [[spoiler:underneath a seat in the audience; the exact seat depends on the seat labeling conventions of the theater in question. The person sitting there is subsequently brought onstage and given the award for "Most Helpful Peasant"]].

* AccentDepundent: [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] "A'ms fo' th' poor!" Collects the Black Knight's dismembered [[IncrediblyLamePun arms]].

* AdaptationalHeroism: Lancelot. When Herbert's father attempts OffingTheOffspring twice, Lance takes offense and protectors Herbert. In the film, he merely saw it as an UnusuallyUninterestingSight.

*** During [[Series/AmericanIdol Clay Aiken's]] first night as Sir Robin on Broadway, The Knights go through the usual gibberish, then sing a line of "Invisible," which drove the many Aiken fans in the audience wild.

A 2005 [[TheMusical musical]] "[[AffectionateParody lovingly ripped off]]" (by Eric Idle and John Du Prez) from ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'', thus sharing many of the same tropes. Nominated for fourteen Tony Awards, of which it won three, including Best Musical. The original cast included Creator/TimCurry, Creator/DavidHydePierce, Creator/HankAzaria, Creator/SaraRamirez, and Christopher Sieber.

* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: The original film had an infamously [[AntiClimax anticlimactic ending]] due to budget constraints, with Arthur and his men getting arrested before they could retrieve the Holy Grail, after Robin had already died trying to cross the Bridge of Death. In the show, they actually do find the Grail in the end, no major character dies, and every character gets their own happy ending (Arthur marries [[spoiler:Guinevere]] while Lancelot marries [[spoiler:Herbert]], and Robin pursues a successful career in musical theatre).

* AdaptationalSexuality: Prince Herbert, in the original movie, was AmbiguouslyGay / CampStraight. In the musical he is confirmed as gay. [[spoiler:As is Sir Launcelot, who marries him in the end.]]

* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: The original film had an infamously [[AntiClimax anticlimactic ending]] due to budget constraints, with Arthur and his men getting arrested before they could retrieve the Holy Grail, after several of them had already died trying to cross the Bridge of Death. In the show, they actually do find the Grail in the end, no major character dies, and every character gets their own happy ending (Arthur marries [[spoiler:Guinevere]] while Lancelot marries [[spoiler:Herbert]], and Robin pursues a successful career in musical theatre).

* AdaptationDistillation: The original film involved a number of barely-related skits, first around Arthur's quest for the knights and then for the quest for the grail. The musical focuses more on the grail quest and makes what sketches from the film they ''do'' include more relevant to the plot (i.e. The anarchist peasant becomes Galahad, the rescue of Prince Herbert [[spoiler: leads to Lancelot coming out and marrying Herbert]]). In addition, the entire subplot of the murdered historian leading to the knights' arrest by police is taken out.

* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: The original film had an infamously [[AntiClimax anticlimactic ending]] due to budget constraints, with Arthur and his men getting arrested before they could retrieve the Holy Grail. In the show, they actually do find the Grail in the end, and every character gets their own happy ending (Arthur marries [[spoiler:Guinevere]] while Lancelot marries [[spoiler:Herbert]], and Robin pursues a successful career in musical theatre).

* AdaptationDistillation: The original film involved a number of barely-related skits, first around Arthur's quest for the knights and then for the quest for the grail. The musical focuses more on the grail quest and makes what sketches from the film they ''do'' include more relevant to the plot (i.e. The anarchist peasant becomes Galahad, the rescue of Prince Herbert [[spoiler: leads to Lancelot coming out and marrying Herbert]]).

* AdaptationExpansion: Slightly more emotional development is given to the characters, such as Arthur [[spoiler: and Lancelot]] getting a romantic plot and Arthur having a crisis of confidence during Act 2, where he is comforted by Patsy.

* AscendedExtra: Patsy has a much larger role in the musical than he did in the movie, where he had exactly one line (you know [[MediumAwareness which one]]), essentially replacing Sir Bedevere as Arthur's constant companion. The Lady of the Lake was only mentioned briefly in one scene, and [[spoiler:Guinevere]] didn't appear at all (not to be confused with Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Show/Movie, who was given a single picture in the movie and is actually (briefly) present in the show).