Review: David Lee’s ‘sparkling and winning’ adaptation of Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot at Studio Tenn

Lerner and Loewe's Camelot, the 1960 musical based on the legend of King Arthur and his knights of the round table and adapted from the T.H. White novel The Once and Future King, is now onstage in Franklin, in an entertaining, sparkling and winningly fast-paced rendition from Studio Tenn. Under the direction of Broadway veteran Phillip William McKinley (The Boy From Oz, Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark) who, with his creative team, brings to life the show's 2010 update by multiple Emmy Award-winning, multi-hyphenate television producer David Lee (Frasier, Wings, The Jeffersons).

Unlike the original script, which tends to run long (at well over three hours), Lee's adaptation presents a script that has undergone some judicious editing, excising some characters (say "goodbye" to Merlin, Sir Pellinore, Morgan Le Fay and sundry others), rejiggering some of the dialogue, eliminating some scenes and focusing on what he - and most of the musical's fanbase, to be clear - believes to be the more intimate and highly engaging story that gives the show its vibrant heart: the romantic triangle of noble King Arthur, his beautiful queen Guinevere and the arrogant French knight Lancelot du Lac.