From Camelot to Spamalot

For centuries, Arthurian legend has captured imaginations throughout Europe and the Americas with its tales of Camelot, romance, and chivalry. The ever-shifting, age-old tale of King Arthur and his world is one which depends on retellings for its endurance in the cultural imagination. Using adaptation theory as a framework, From Camelot to Spamalot foregrounds the role of music in selected Arthurian adaptations, examining six stage and film musicals. The book considers how musical versions in twentieth and twenty-first century popular culture interpret the legend of King Arthur, contending that music guides the audience to understand this well-known tale and its characters in new and unexpected ways. All of the productions considered include an overtly modern perspective on the legend, intruding and even commenting on the tale of King Arthur. Shifting from an idealistic utopia to a silly place, the myriad notions of Camelot offer a look at the importance of myth in American popular culture. Author Megan Woller's approach, rooted in the literary theory of scholars like Linda Hutcheon, highlights the intertextual connections between chosen works and Arthurian legend. In so doing, From Camelot to Spamalot intersects with and provides a timely contribution to several different fields of study, from adaptation studies and musical theater studies to film studies and Arthurian studies.

Megan Woller is Director of Liberal Studies and Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at Gannon University. Her research interests include film music, musical theater, popular music, and music and gender. She is the author of articles on film musical adaptations in The Oxford Handbook of Musical Theatre Adaptations, Music and the Moving Image, and Studies in Musical Theatre.

- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part 1: Adapting Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
- Prelude: Twain as Adapter
- Chapter 1: Musical Storytelling and Revision in Rodgers and Hart's A Connecticut Yankee
- Chapter 2: Bing Crosby's Stardom and Legend in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
- Part 2: Adapting T.H. White's The Once and Future King
- Chapter 3: Interpretation and Characterization in Lerner and Loewe's Camelot
- Chapter 4: Naiveté and the Depiction of Arthur's Childhood in Disney's The Sword in the Stone
- Part 3: Monty Python as Adapters
- Chapter 5: Parody and the Role of Song in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Chapter 6: Notions of Place, Legend, and Broadway in Monty Python's Spamalot
- Conclusion
- Archival Collections
- Bibliography
- Index