Still Galavanting Around...

I just read that the premiere episodes of the musical spoof TV series Galavant (it's running as back-to-back half hours), which I wrote about here, finished #17 in the Nielsens.  Not bad.

I thought the show was sort of fun.  Not brilliant, and it remains to see how the story develops and if it can maintain the goofy whimsy -- I'm not suggesting it can't, since there is very good talent behind it, but unlike shows that have an interesting plot and can run on that for a while, this is a show that depends entirely on its execution.  However, I enjoyed it, and thought some of the songs were fairly witty.        

Mainly, it’s nice to see that a) something risky, and b) a musical didn’t fall on its face the first week.  We’ll see if it holds up.

If you missed the premiere, I'm sure it's available on demand, but here are a few of the songs, by Alan Menken and Glen Slater.

A brief bit of background.  Hmm, actually, I was going to describe things, but the wonderful title song explains it better.  This is described online as an extended trailer, but actually it's very close to the first five minutes of the show, which smartly telescopes the set-up of the series.  (After the dialogue sequence, the clip then smoothly edits on the final reprise)  It's a sort of troubadour plot-ballad that later gets repeated and sung throughout the show to help carry the story forward.

Since this is largely the set-up, what the song leaves out is that the story jumps to a year later, when a nagging Princess Isabella from a distant land has dragged a reticent, still-moping Galvant to help save her kingdom, only agreeing when he realizes that he would be fighting the same evil King, Richard.  Yet unknown by Galvant is that, with her parents held hostage, Isabella has been given a deal by King Richard to get Galavant to his castle, as the king prepares for the unsuspecting knight's arrival.

Here then is an out-of-shape Galavant, along with his squire, and the unrelenting Princess Isabella starting off on their journey, in  the song, "Adventure Awaits."  

Finally, this was probably the "showstopper" big number.  It's between the two main couples, who each (as noted...) have a love-hate relationship that falls far more on the "hate" side.  The song is titled, "Maybe You're Not the Worst Thing Ever."

Episode 2 (which is actually episodes 3 and 4 put together...) of the four-part series airs tonight (Sunday) at 8 PM -- 7 PM Central -- on ABC.