Editor’s note: The Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 27 and 28, performances at the Fisher Theatre have been canceled due to weather-related travel delays. Those wishing to exchange their tickets for another date should call 313-887-1256. As of now, the Thursday through Saturday, Jan. 29-31, shows are still on. If not exchanged, tickets from the canceled shows will be refunded on Feb. 2. Visit broadwayindetroit.com for more details.
Original story:
L’ogan J’ones wasn’t even born when “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” came out in 1975.
But thanks to seeing the film at a young age, he grew up spouting Monty Pythonisms around the house.
“We quoted it a lot,” says the University of Michigan musical theater alumnus, who’s touring as part of the cast of “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” the Tony Award-winning stage adaptation of the film, created by the troupe’s Eric Idle. “‘She turned me into a newt’ was a classic, which unfortunately isn’t in the show. ‘I fart in your general direction,’ when you’re 7 years old, there’s nothing funnier.
“A lot of my humor growing up is sort of based off that movie, so it’s fun to be part of the show now.”
And J’ones, 32 — who’s part of the ensemble and understudies several roles — has been happy to discover plenty of kindred spirits in the “Spamalot” audiences. “A lot of the people are familiar with the piece, yeah — the film or the show,” he notes. “When the Knights Who Say Ni come along, they’re ‘ni-ing’ along with them, and they respond to all the classic bits. So it still sits in a special place in a lot of people’s hearts, so I feel like I’m sharing something with everybody who’s there.”
J’ones was, in fact, already acting when he first saw “The Holy Grail.”
He credits his mother, a graphic designer, who saw a newspaper ad for auditions for “Big The Musical” at a local community theater near their home in Ocean County, New Jersey. “She asked my brother and I, ‘Do you want to audition for a musical?’” recalls J’ones, who was 5 years old at the time. “We didn’t know what it was. So we rented the movie and auditioned and got parts, and I just fell in love with it and continued doing shows with that community theater ’til I was 18 years old.”
J’ones began dancing when he was 8, and during high school — particularly after appearing in a professional production of “West Side Story” — he “started to realize that there was a career path in this. I think it was the fun of all — the idea that I could make money while really enjoying myself. My mom always talked about how she liked going to work; that was something I wanted to find for myself.”
J’ones had “four really great years” at U-M, where he minored in global theater and ethnic studies — aspects he applies to his stagecraft in subtle ways. “I definitely am informed by some of the 19th-century gesture work,” he explains, “which sounds absurd, but I definitely use it in every show I do, still. It just shapes a lot of my perspective on theater and the history of it.”
There have been many shows since graduation, too.
J’ones — who will be making his Fisher Theatre debut with “Spamalot,” though he attended shows there while at U-M — has appeared on Broadway in “SpongeBob SquarePants” and in the off-Broadway premiere of the “Clueless” musical. He was also in the premiere cast of “The Outsiders” at the La Jolla Playhouse in California, which went on to win the Tony Award for Best Musical on Broadway. A guest casting on TV’s “Law and Order: SVU” was a hit at home. “My mom always watched a ton of ‘Law and Order,’ so the day that happened, I called her up and said, ‘Mom, we did it!’” J’ones has also appeared in “FBI: Most Wanted” and “Doctor Death,” as well as in John Krasinski’s 2024 movie “IF.”
“The thing I say about my career pretty often is that I’ve been really fortunate in a pretty short amount of time to check a lot of boxes of things I wanted to get to do — be in an original Broadway cast, record a cast album, perform at the (Macy’s) Thanksgiving Day parade, be on ‘Law and Order’ that kind of stuff,” says J’ones, who’s also a choreographer, songwriter and juggler. “If I get to do that once in my career over however many years it exists, I’d consider myself super lucky.
“I just have been miraculously part of projects that have offered me those opportunities.”
“Monty Python’s Spamalot” runs Tuesday, Jan. 27 through Jan. 31 at the Fisher Theatre, 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit. 313-872-1000 or broadwayindetroit.com.
