'It’s been amazing': Final weekend as Stratford Festival winds down

Spamalot cast reflects ahead of closing weekend After an extended run, Spamalot will play its final four shows this weekend. Jeff Pickel reports.

It’s nearly curtains for the 2023 Stratford Festival Season.

After an extended run, the final four performances of musical comedy Spamalot run this weekend.

“This season has been awesome, especially for this show, we have been pretty well sold most of our whole run,” said Liam Tobin, who plays Sir Dennis Galahad, amongst other characters.

As of Thursday, some tickets for the final four shows were available.

After starting rehearsals in February, the cast hit the stage in April. Eight months later, Tobin says it will be tough to say goodbye.

“It's been a really close knit group, we're all friends we had a really great time running the show. It's always sad to leave something behind that has been a lot of fun,” he said.

Tobin says it was a great boost of confidence to see Spamalot extended. He thinks it’s the right play at the right time.

“I think that this is a perfect time for people to kind of just get to come and leave their troubles at the door and just laugh for a few hours,” said Tobin.

Festival officials say overall, the 2023 season was a good one.

They have not tallied the numbers yet, but they’re expect to be between 80 to 90 per cent back to the pre-pandemic target of 500,000 ticket sales.

While the 2023 season is still winding down, the festival already has its sights set on 2024.

So far the festival says it’s sold around 30,000 tickets to theatre members.

Henry Firmston was in the cast of Spamalot and will be back in 2024 playing one of the leads in Something Rotten.

Set in the Renaissance, musical comedy Something Rotten follows two writers, brother Nick and Nigel Bottom, as they try to find their next big hit.

“They think the next big thing is musicals, so they set out to create the first big musical, but have some stiff competition with Shakespeare himself,” explained Firmston.

Firmston says he is excited to be back at Stratford next year, and happy to see the crowds return.

“I'm just glad that people are coming out to theater like cannot thank them enough,” he said.

Tickets for the 2024 season for the general public go on sale Dec. 11.