Had a great weekend down in London; nipped down to TKTS first thing on Saturday morning, and managed to grab Row E in the stalls for Zorro, and the front of the circle for Spamalot. Marvellous.

So, Zorro. Well, I learnt classical guitar as a kid, and I've always been fascinated by flamenco, and the likes of Juan Martin and Paco de Lucia, so hearing the Gypsy Kings had "done" the music, I was intrigued how this was going to work. The reviews of Zorro in the papers were very encouraging (well, The Guardian likes it); I haven't caught up to the MusicalTalk review yet, I've still got a few more episodes to get through.

In short, it was very impressive and entertaining, without taking itself too seriously. A fast, flowing plot, lots of Tarzan-style swinging in on ropes, just a hint of camp and panto, excellent music (apart from two numbers, see in a bit), a brilliant band, fine swordsmanship, and good comedy.

There were a couple of numbers which fell a bit flat, a little bit too pop-py, outside the feel of the rest of the show. When the soundtrack is available (which is why I can't remember which ones they were), I'll probably be skipping those.

So now, my wife fancies Matt Rawle, and I've seen Emma Williams' bum. What more could we ask for?

The show started at 3pm, which meant we were out just in time to grab some food, walk around a bit, get some blood back into the legs, and head on up to Spamalot.

From what I can see, Monty Python is a bit of a Marmite; some love, some hate. I love it, myself. I knew it inside out back at school, although a lot of the detail is gone. I had all of the books and the albums, a proper fan. My wife didn't really know it, and so hadn't fallen on either side of the love/hate fence.

A good view, a silly set right from the start, with the cartoon-like flats taking inspiration from Gilliam's original animations (did he design these ones? I don't know).

The overture starts, the trumpeter gets a bit above his station, and mid-solo, the conductor shoots him.

Already though, when typing this, I'm feeling a little bit disappointed, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, right from the start, some idiot a couple of rows behind was saying all of the jokes out loud, just about a second before they were said on stage. I know he was just enjoying himself, but it made me quite annoyed. So, tried to block him out for starters.

The whole thing was just a bit tired, I think. Sanjeev made a very good job of the king, and understood the role that was expected of him; he has a perfectly reasonable singing voice too. The Lady of the Lake did very well; this was her debut from (oh I can't remember) a Maria-style competition in Scandinavia, and got the English sense of humour spot on.

The others were good, but, well, looking back now, I can remember a lot of the detail of Zorro, but there aren't many moments from Spamalot I can bring to mind really.

The music was OK. The quality of the performance was excellent, don't get me wrong, the songs were sung very well, it's just that the songs weren't very good material. They were purely vehicles for the comedy as opposed to crafted things in their own right.

You know what, for all the "it's the funniest show ever" hype, I was bored.

Perhaps I was expecting too much from Spamalot. Perhaps the hype got to me. Perhaps the bloke three rows back got to me! Maybe even the spectacle of Zorro earlier on gave me unrealistic hopes about the show, and is giving this an unfortunate comparison. They are totally different shows for different people. It's a bit like comparing Into The Woods and Rocky Horror. Anyway, my wife now hates Monty Python.

So Zorro, go and see it, you'll want to see it again. Spamalot, see it for completeness.

PS Emma? Do you know if there's a London Cast Recording coming out? Dress Circle don't seem to know.