Sean Ball, far left, is Sir Robin in the touring production of Monty Python’s Spamalot, opening April 28 at Bass Hall. The show also stars Fort Worth’s own Major Attaway as
King Arthur. (Photo by Matthew Murphy)
RICH LOPEZ | Staff writer
Rich@DallasVoice.com
Sean Bell (he/him) is very aware that Monty Python humor can be an acquired taste. But he also promises that musical lovers won’t be left out of the good times and showtunes in Monty Python’s Spamalot, coming to Fort Worth as part of Bass Hall’s Broadway at the Bass series.
The show, which opens April 28 and runs through May 3, also stars Fort Worth’s Major Attaway.
Bell also promises that queer audiences will find a connection to the onstage antics.
Or perhaps, vice versa.
“We just had our LGBTQIA+ Night last night at the Pantages Theatre [in Los Angeles], and we were sold out to a very receptive audience,” the actor said. “It is a very queer show in many unexpected ways.”
“Unexpected” in the sense that Bell doesn’t want to give much away about the show. He does give some hints though.
“There’s a whole song about a character coming out that you may not see coming,” he said.
“And there is a gay love story, some drag that happens and a lot of queering of the material.”
Something for every gay, it sounds like.
is more asexual than gay
( Photo by Jeffrey Mosier Photography)
The 39 year-old actor grew up with Monty Python thanks to his parents — or rather, thanks to his father’s side of the family. Actually, the British comedy series was a bit divisive in his family, since his father’s family loved it, but his mother’s family? Well, not so much.
“I’ve seen both aspects of people being like, ‘Why are you laughing at this? This is ridiculous.’ But I do love it,” he said. “But the thing I really enjoy about Spamalot is that it’s a perfect sort of amalgam of enough Monty Python for the devotees and fans, but also enough zany musical theater and topical humor for everyone else.”
Bell made his Broadway debut in Harmony, with music and lyrics by Barry Manilow. Here, he plays Brother Maynard and Sir Robin.
He’s still somewhat of a newbie to this touring show, having started rehearsals last November and hit the road on Dec. 1 with the tour’s first performance.
“It’s going great, and we’re looking forward to Texas,” Bell said as the show was playing Los Angeles during the time of this interview. “Houston and Fort Worth are next, and I think Texas will be lovely.”
Bell’s primary character is Sir Robin. Of the knights, he’s the most cowardly — or, in Bell’s words, a chicken. Robin also has a passion for musical theater and strong intentions to stage a show.
So, could he be … you know?
“I don’t think of Robin necessarily as queer. I think — and this is just my interpretation — that he’s a little bit asexual,” Bell said.
So aces may appreciate the pseudo-representation Bell brings.
He continued, “His passions are not physical. He really just loves singing and dancing, and that’s what drives him. He doesn’t really have too much of a desire for romance.”
Robin sounds a bit like a young Bell in his formative years.
As a child, he grew up with movie musicals, black-and-white films and original cast albums.
“I loved Singin’ in the Rain and Sound of Music, and, because my parents were Broadway fans, we always had that old Broadway music in our house,” he said.
And it was his dad who helped spark Bell’s theater aspirations.
“My dad saw an ad in the local paper looking for kids for a community theater production of
The Music Man,” he recalled. “That was third grade, I think, or the summer before, and I got in the show. And I’ve been doing this ever since.”
Later, he would find his tribe in the theater community, and that tribe would help him realize he was gay at the age of 15.
“Being part of the theater really made that possible for me because I don’t think or know if I would have come out that early,” he said. n
For tickets, visit BassHall.com.