Musical Review: Camelot

Last night, I watched Camelot with my sister on Netflix's "Watch it Now" option online. I had previously seen it live at the Chanhassen, but that was years ago so I only vaguely remembered it. After a lot of technical mishaps, I was finally able to watch it. I decided, why not use the rating system I developed to rate it for people?

Plot: 19/20
The plot of Camelot is superb. I know that there were some differences between the movie and musical though. However, it was three hours long. This is a long time, but the plot wasn't dragging at all. My only complaint about the plot was the erratic time flow. Years pass by at certain points, while at other points you think it is years instead of only a day. I was able to follow these, but your typical audience may not be able to. They should have clarified how much later things were or made it more obvious somehow.

Characters: 13/15
Most of the characters were great in this musical. The only problem was that there weren't a lot of them. You have Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere, King Pellinore, and Mordred. And those last two were almost a stretch. Sure there are some one shot knights and the boy at the end, but I would hate to be auditioning for something like this. After Lancelot and Guinevere get together, you barely want to be around them either, so it could have used some more line soakers. I know the play had Merlin and Morgan Le Fay, so I didn't take off too many points.

Dialogue: 13/15
While "no one talks like that" now days, the dialogue seemed almost as authentic as it could get. Whether this was director's choice or merely poor writing however, most of the lines lent themselves to being whispered. I had to hook my laptop into my TV's audio so that I could turn it loud enough to hear what they were saying. Also, if someone really acts Lancelot the way play suggests, it gets rattling, since the accent could so easily be done away with. This could be more of a grasp towards authenticity, but maybe a little less thick would have made it more enjoyable.

Music: 18/20
The music in this was great. While there weren't as many songs as I would hope for (They apparently cut four or so for the movie), every one of them was memorable. They were all well written vocal parts, although the pit parts seemed to suffer from a bit underuse, which could just be because of the medieval sound. I also would have liked for other people to sing songs besides the main three. They cut both of Mordred's songs, but there is still only one (Two if you count "The Lusty Month of May") song where the company sings.

Adaptation: 8/10
While this was very well written, anyone who didn't have background on King Arthur wouldn't have understood a lot of it. And it is an adaptation still, so...

Curtain Call: 4/5
The credit music was fine. Nothing phenomenal though.

Theme/Underlying Social Message: 7/7
Some of the themes really hit home to me, like Arthur deciding to let Lance and Gwenny be together, because otherwise he's putting his rights above theirs, and he is a civilized king. This ends up being his tragic downfall however. A lot of the other issues are still comparable today, and despite being set in medieval times, it still seems very "current".

Other Opinion Category: 7/8
I took off a point because of the limited cast and long length, two things most audiences wouldn't appreciate.

Total: 89/100

That's a good score by the way. Camelot is a very good musical and I would recommend it to anyone. It doesn't have a specific niche so I think it could be enjoyed by any audience.