A Few Minutes with Sir Lancelot

As my friend Eileen said after listening to the cast recording of MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT, “Sir Lancelot has come a lo-o-o-o-ng way from Robert Goulet.”

Indeed. Who knew that Camelot would ever lead the way to SPAMALOT? Who knew that the Knights of the Round Table would ever sing, dance, fight, be taunted, search for the Holy Grail and put on a Broadway show? Who knew that Sir Lancelot—yes, Sir Lancelot!—might be a bit more sexually confused than we ever thought?

Now you’re probably expecting me to say that actor Rick Holmes (aka Richard Holmes; aka Rick Vincent Holmes), who plays the heady role of Sir Lancelot in the touring company of SPAMALOT coming to Playhouse Square Center in October, knew that it would all come to this some day. But he didn’t. He was a fan of "Monty Python’s Flying Circus” TV show, and, of course the movies that Monty Python created, but little did he know back then that he would be starring in a Monty Python musical playing all over the United States and Canada some day.

“I may not have known it back then, but I’m very glad to have such a great role in such a funny, successful show today,” he told me when I caught up with him by telephone in Toronto, where the show was playing.

“I’m having a blast in a show that is completely unique, yet recognized by so many. I am still calling friends from junior high, reciting lines that we all knew from the TV show and the Holy Grail movie. They recite many of them right along with me, and I explain how they’re being used in the show,” he told me.

It’s only his second musical, having played Cliff in both the Broadway Studio 54 and national touring company productions of Cabaret as his “intro” into the genre, but he is already looking toward his future in more.

“I came into musical theater rather ‘late in life,’ but I hope to find more roles in musicals that need my type. I may not be a ‘singer,’ but I am an actor who can sing. I may not be a ‘dancer,’ but I’m an actor who can move or dance well enough…I think,” he adds with a laugh.

He’s enjoying SPAMALOT as much as the public and the press are, but he tells me of the rigors, too. “I have to go the gym in each city we play…..not because I’m so into working out, but because musicals are so physical! I have to stay in shape enough not to get injured,” he explains.

Playing multiple characters has its challenges, but Holmes enjoys them all, including the Knight Who Says “Ni,” the French Taunter, Tim the Enchanter, and, of course, Sir Lancelot. “When Lancelot storms the castle to rescue Herbert, well, that certainly is a fun twist.”

The show-stopping second act is filled with hit numbers, but Holmes feels the rhumba carnival homage to Peter Allen with some La Cage Aux Folles thrown in is a highlight. “I don’t want to give anything away,” he continues, “but it is called His Name is Lancelot, after all.”

He explains more of the show’s structure: “Act I is, naturally, the set-up. It’s all about the quest for the grail, the Knights of the Round Table, etc. Act II is just a plain romp…more fun than the audience knows what to do with sometimes. It’s the ‘switch’ to putting on a Broadway show, to being who you truly are, to plain ol’ silliness and fun.”

I asked him some of the usual “acting questions,” and he pretty well summed them up by explaining that “the trick for us and (director) Mike Nichols is to look at things in the two sections of the entire show: obviously there is the sketch comedy, but there is also the need for us to think of each character we play as having objectives, relationships…that are real, no matter how funny or silly we may perceive the particular scene to be.”

His next comment, though, is one that we all love to hear from any actor who’s living the dream: “There are days when I just have to stop and think ‘I can’t believe this much fun is what I’m doing for a living…that this is what pays the bills!”

Holmes has been able to pay the bills pretty successfully with this acting thing ever since he arrived at New York University to work on an MFA in acting. Oh, he’s had some of the typical “actor jobs” like doorman/bartender at the original “Catch a Rising Star” where he got to know guys like Jon Stewart and Ray Romano, but his first big “gig” was the role of Lord Grey/ensemble in Richard III with the New York Shakespeare Festival while he was still working on his MFA.

“I’ve done a little of everything,” he goes on to explain, “but what actor doesn’t? I’ve been fortunate to be on Broadway in everything from Cabaret to Timon of Athens. At the Roundabout I worked with Blythe Danner and Ed Hermann in a production of Terrence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea.” Other Broadway credits include The Pillowman, Major Barbara, St. Joan and The Government Inspector.

His off-Broadway work is equally impressive. He’s appeared with the Joseph Papp Public Theatre several times, at Lincoln Center, at the Delacorte Theatre, the Atlantic Theatre, the Vineyard Theatre and with the New York Shakespeare Festival.

TV viewers have seen his work on Law and Order, Law and Order SVU, The City and All My Children. “I had the good fortune to work on an ABC series called Talk to Me with Beverly D’Angelo and Kyra Sedgwick, but the series wasn’t quite as fortunate: it only ran for a partial season.”

“Another TV job that was a highlight was working on a production of The Petrified Forest, which was a salute to the 1955 production on live TV’s Producer’s Showcase. I played the same role that a young Jack Klugman played in the 1955 show. The coolest part, though, was that it was Delbert Mann directing—the same director of the 1955 TV show!”

The last time Holmes was in Cleveland and at Playhouse Square Center was with the touring production of Angels in America. “I played the Mormon Joe Pitt, grappling with his latent homosexuality.” Holmes remembers the beautiful, spacious, “elegant system of theaters that all seemed to be hooked together.”

Holmes started the SPAMALOT tour in March in Boston for a six-week run, moved on to Chicago for an eight-week run, to Washington DC for a five-week run, then to Toronto, also for an extended run. “These longer ‘sit-downs’ as they’re called are great, but I’m really looking forward to the two-week runs at so many venues throughout the US. We travel all together on a bus, and it really makes the company closer, enjoying each other in so many ways,” Holmes explains.

“I loved where I stayed last time when I was in Cleveland, so I’m sure I’ll love it again. And those great theaters—I am really looking forward to seeing them again! This is a great show, and I know Cleveland is going to love it!”