“The Once and Future King”: The Musical, Springville Art’s Café
By Barb Arnstein
A king, a queen and knights will be singing and dancing in Springville this weekend. These characters appear in the very popular musical Camelot, based on the legends about King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and one of the boldest Knights of the Round Table, Sir Lancelot, as told in T. H. White’s book The Once and Future King. (One of its many memorable quotes: “Might does not make right! Right makes right!”)
It was a Broadway hit that became a movie, and has been revived countless times worldwide. Bookworm Theatrics and the Springville Center for the Arts will be presenting a shortened version of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s masterpiece at the Art’s Cafe this Friday and Saturday April 29-30 at 7pm.
Camelot is a kingdom famously described in the song “Camelot” with the lyrics, “In short, there’s simply not/a more congenial spot/for happy-ever-aftering than here in Camelot!” In the song, “C’est Moi” (French for “It’s Me”), Lancelot flatters himself with lines like “I can climb a wall no one else can climb/cleave a dragon in record time” and “Here I stand/with valor untold. /Exceptionally brave, amazingly bold”. Guinevere reveals her character in “The Simple Joys of Maidenhood”, by asking questions that reveal her own vanity, such as, “Shall I not be on a pedestal, /worshipped and competed for? Not…cause a little war?” Arthur is way more modest than either of them, singing about himself in “I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight”, the words, “A warrior who’s so calm in battle, /even his armor doesn’t rattle/faces a woman petrified with fright? Right!” When Guinevere and Lancelot become interested in each other, the harmony in the kingdom is dangerously threatened.
“The show is immersive and interactive” said the director, Angela Masi. “It’s scaled to the smaller size of the Art’s Cafe,
At one point, the audience is encouraged to make remarks to help sow the seeds of dissent. In this production, Lancelot is played by a woman. Guinevere envies her because knights get to go out and have adventures, and Guinevere doesn’t.”
Bookworm Theatrics is a professional theater group geared toward improving conditions for students in under-funded literacy classrooms. The actors are audiobook narrators sharpening their skills with stage performances. Springville residents saw Bookworm Theatrics’ perform in the Art’s Cafe before, in their 2021 production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, a compilation of lines from his plays and poems, and clowning. The members of Bookworm Theatrics will be staying in Springville once again as part of the Springville Center for the Arts residency program. In addition to their performance at the Art’s Cafe, they will be holding theater workshops at Springville-Griffith Institute schools.
The community-owned Art’s Cafe is located at 5 East Main Street in Springville. Tickets are $15 general admission and can be purchased at SpringvilleArts.org or by calling the Center at 716-592-9038.