The adverts are witty; the posters hilarious and Michael Palin's Finnish programme notes a delight. The show itself? Well that's so-so, alternately laugh-out-loud silly and a teeny bit tedious, even though it now stars Simon Russell Beale clip-clopping around the stage to the sound of two coconut halves being banged together. Russell Beale's King Arthur has many similarities to Winnie the Pooh: he's cuddly, loveable, and has a very small brain, but he offers such a jovial performance that you can't help but enjoy watching him.
All the same, there are times when you wish you were indeed at Hamlet rather than Spamalot. The lack of any real emotion in the show makes it empty entertainment, and during the weaker second half it increasingly looks like a student show which has had a few million quid chucked in its direction. The plethora of fart jokes combined with references to musical theatre and the pastiche score makes it look as if its target audience are 11-year-old boys with an encyclopedic knowledge of the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Most of the cast who opened the show last autumn remain. The Lady of the Lake, Hannah Waddingham, has an extraordinary pair of lungs, Tom Goodman Hill is good value as a gay Sir Lancelot, and Christopher Siber's transformation from grimy anarcho-syndicalist to rock god is a joy. Yep, it's all good fun, but not as filling as a spam sandwich.
· Until July 21. Box office: 0870 890 0142.
