“I don’t like SPAM- but I loved SPAMalot!” – Monty Python in Covington, TN

Jul10

by Lin on July 10, 2018 at 9:08 pm

Posted In: Blog

NOTE: I started this post and never finished it, but wanted to share it anyway since the play was so much fun! Sorry for the delay and slightly dated nature of this blog, but here’s the edited post as a Wayback Wednesday entry…even though it’s not THAT wayback!

Back on March 17, 2018 my wife Nicki and I got to attend the last performance of “Spamalot” at the Ruffin Theater in Covington, TN. It was a gorgeous Saturday night, and turned out to be a great date night for us.

Covington is not too far north of Memphis and Millington– about an hour and a half or so away for us in north Mississippi. I would say it’s a straight shot up HWY 51 for us, but we really didn’t take a straight shot up there. We had some other running around to do that day so we ended up taking another route. Was more of a straight shot on the way back home.

The theater sits on the town square and we were able to park near the Ruffin. I immediately dug the look of the old theater and its neon marquee. It reminded me of the Massac Theatre in Metropolis, IL, the Franklin Theatre in Franklin, TN, and a few others that are no longer standing in Memphis. The surrounding square looks a lot like what you might expect a small southern town square to look like, and reminded me a lot of Hernando where I live, and Prescott, AZ when I visited there. Everything was definitely in walking distance for us, and I wasn’t shocked to see a few Confederate statues/monuments near the courthouse. We’ve still got a lot of those around these parts- hey, it is the south.

We had some time to kill once we got to town, so we decided to grab some dinner at the Wyatt Earp’s Steak House. They have two locations, one here in Covington, and one in Millington, TN. My wife and I are fans of the “Wynonna Earp” TV show and I love the movie “Tombstone” so we both got a kick out of eating here.

I wasn’t hungry enough for a steak, so I just got a burger and some mashed potatoes. Both were excellent. We ran into our friend Kevin L. Williams, who was having dinner with a couple of his friends.

We had a nice walk back to the Ruffin. Ran into a few other folks we know, and saw a few locals walking their dogs around the courthouse- which looks a lot like the one from “Back To The Future“.

The inside of the theater was small, but not cramped feeling. Reminded me of some of the movie theaters I went to as a kid in Memphis. We found more of our friends inside and chatted for a bit until it was time to take our seats.

The play was put on by the local theater volunteers, including my friend Tim Brown and his daughter Rachel. Timmy was the lead- King Arthur.

Tim and his wife Traci were the Best Man and Matron of Honor at mine and Nicki’s wedding. He made a great King Arthur, and even grew a beard for it. My favorite character was “Patsy” and his coconuts. His performance of “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” was extremely entertaining, and I caught myself humming/whistling the song the rest of the night.

Timmy did the A/V and a lot of the costuming for the show, has helped out with MidSouthCon and the Superman Celebration, and will be a part of their upcoming “Legally Blonde” production. He asked if I could help out with painting a dress for the Lady of the Lake.

It started off as a dull grey dress Tim found at a thrift store, and I airbrushed some acrylic metallic blue, purple, and green on it. Looked great in the daylight, but didn’t shine and sparkle as much as I had hoped under the stage lights. Thankfully the actress loved the dress.

The play was a blast! I love “Monty Python And The Holy Grail” and have wanted to catch this show when it was at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis. Glad I finally got to catch it. I enjoyed getting to meet several of the cast members, and grabbing some drinks and eats afterwards with Tim, Traci, Rachel, and some of our other friends.