In the concluding episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel last May, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer put in a surprise appearance as Carol Burnett—and, to hear her tell it, that spirit is still with her in her role as The Lady of the Lake in the Spamalot revival currently at the St. James Theater.

“I feel like Carol Burnett in the heyday of The Carol Burnett Show,” she tells Observer. “That show wasn’t just about Carol. She had an ensemble—Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Lyle Waggoner, people who gave her more free time on her own show. The men in this show are some of the funniest I’ve ever worked with—not to mention, the nicest. It’s a real troupe of comedians.”

The only other femmes in the cast are five Laker Girls, who flutter about, mostly mute, making The Lady’s elaborate entrances busier and more beautiful. Everybody else is male.

The poster art promoting the original 2005 Broadway production — derived, of course, from the hilarious 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, including galloping around to the clickety-clack of coconut shells knocked together — was a cartoon of the Holy Grail itself filled to overflowing with the quirky contenders for King Arthur’s Round Table. Dead-center in the ad was the king, drowning in self-doubts about the quality of his acquisitions.

The newly revised art for the current revival has sprouted a new character: The Lady of the Lake herself, resplendent in all her glory, standing tallest among the rest........

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