Gilroy theater group resumes New Year’s tradition after pandemic pause

 

Photo by Calvin Nuttall
Dave Leon, left, plays “King Arthur,” and Michael Frelier plays “Sir Galahad” in the musical comedy “Monty Python’s Spamalot.”

By Calvin Nuttall

Celebrating 20 years of bringing South Valley residents together for light-hearted performances, Pintello Comedy Theater will usher in the New Year with the opening of its show “Monty Python’s Spamalot.”

The musical rendition of the genre-defining 1975 film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” “Spamalot” is a bawdy, irreverent romp following the misadventures of King Arthur and his knights as they pursue the mystical Holy Grail.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic set in and temporarily shut down events like live theater, the Pintello Comedy Theater  had a tradition of premiering their latest comedy on New Year’s Eve with a special, late-night performance. “Spamalot,” directed by Whitney Pintello, will be their first such premier since the opening of their rendition of “Little Shop of Horrors” on the eve of 2019.

“The New Year’s show is special,” Pintello said. “About eight years ago, we decided it would be fun to try something different. We have a local favorite singer, Ted Sanchez, who comes and warms everybody up for an hour. He sings to the crowd, and they end up singing along. It’s a great, rousing way to start the night.”

The Westside Grill will cater the event, providing wine and Champagne as well as a dessert buffet during intermission, she said.

“The show ends just in time for us to count down onstage until midnight,” she said. “Then we do DJ dancing from midnight beyond. It’s just the best way to open the show.”

The theater group has had no trouble getting restarted after the pandemic, which had closed its doors for 18 months.

“We had so many of our patrons messaging us, saying we’d be happy to come, we’ll mask, we promise,” Pintello said. “But we really wanted to wait.”

With its relatively large cast doing ambitious dance numbers, “Spamalot” pushes the envelope.

They hired choreographer Arielle Cole, who works in San Jose and San Francisco, to train the performers in their steps. She is a self-professed Monty Python nerd, so she’s just a perfect addition to the group, Pintello said.

Many of the cast members of Pintello Comedy Theater’s “Monty Python’s Spamalot” show off on stage. Photo by Calvin Nuttall

 

“It’s wildly different from anything we’ve done before,” she said. “We’ve done a couple of big musicals, but this is by far the largest dancing show we’ve ever done.”

A 20-year veteran actor in the group, Dave Leon plays the “straight man” role of King Arthur. He explained how the size of the cast required them to get creative with their choreography in the small theater.

“Usually with the shows that we’ve done here, there’s choreography, but not to this degree,” he said. “Not this elaborate, not this big, not with this many bodies. There’s 18 of us in this cast, and at certain points, everybody’s doing something. It got so big that we had to put some people down here on the (audience) floor. So we’re configuring the theater a little differently than what we usually do.”

The cast is Dave Leon, Guillermo Morales, James Swan, CJ Patereau, Vaughn Mayer, Christy Wright, Michael Frelier, Matt Haluza, Michael Kaelin, Jacob Goller, Maddi Alipaz, Matt Regan, Shaelan Barber, Jennifer Willis, Jennifer Medeiros, Jessica Herrera, Jeff Patereau, and Becky Owens.

The theater, set in Gilroy’s Grange Hall, lends a close, personal feeling between the cast and audience. People sit at small tables in a dinner theater configuration, munching on snacks and enjoying beverages.

“When people come here, they feel like they’re in your living room,” Pintello said. “It’s a great thing to share.”

This closeness allows the cast to interact more directly with the audience members, she said.

“In this space, having that many bodies doing all that movement, it’s a challenge,” Leon said. “But Whitney and our choreographer, Arielle, have done fantastic work. Audiences really love it when you’re interacting with them.”

Pintello praised Cole’s choreography and creative use of the limited space.

“The dance itself, I think it’s just going to blow people away,” she said. “In fact, we widened a giant aisle because they’re going to spend a lot of time dancing in the aisle, and they’ll have a lot of entrances and exits from the aisle. The end of the show partly takes place in the audience, so it’s really a lot of fun.”

In addition to its New Year’s premier, Pintello Comedy Theater looks forward to celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2023. Established by Pintello’s parents, Rod and Marion Pintello, the theater has produced more than 50 plays and since its inception. They performed their first show on Jan. 3, 2003, and found people were looking for a good laugh.

“As my mom says, there’s enough drama in the world,” Whitney said.

The Pintellos decided to open a comedy theater after many years of performing with community theaters, where it was difficult to convince the producers to run more comedies, Rod said.

“We did 20 years of community theater and did everything that can be done, every musical that ever came up,” he said. “We did five musicals a year, but we only did one comedy about every other year. And whenever we did, we sold them out! So, we thought we’d give this a shot.”

The risk certainly paid off.

“Every show paid for the next show,” Rod said. “And here we are.”

Twenty years later, the theater is still very much a family affair.

“You’ll catch all of us at every single show,” Whitney said about her parents and brother, Simon Pintello. “They’re either selling cookies or plunging the toilets or welcoming customers. We’ve all four been working on it all 20 years. And we trade around. Mom and dad direct sometimes, too, and we all have starred in shows as well.”

For the Pintellos, their theater is a way for everyday folks to come together, decompress, and have fun.

“It’s just a really unique way to interact with the community. Where else do you get a guaranteed two hours of just laughter and light-heartedness?” Whitney said.

Calvin Nuttall is a Morgan Hill resident who has a passion for science, technology and politics.