Madcap medieval humor marks "Spamalot," the smash-hit Broadway musical that's part of Popejoy Hall's 2007-08 Popejoy Presents series. Making up a Popejoy lineup involves the deft but daring mixture of sure things such as "Spamalot," old favorites such as the muscial "Annie" and the calculated risks of rock-opera arias and ventriloquists.

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Everybody loves "Annie."

But who'd pay good money to hear jacked-up opera arias or see a ventriloquist with a tennis ball?

Popejoy Hall spokesman Terry Davis said pulling together Popejoy's entertainment schedule, which starts each fall, is a matter of mixing the tried-and-true with the provocative but uncertain.

Experience, for example, shows that people keep crowding into the University of New Mexico's 41-year-old venue to see the versatile Irish musical group the Chieftains. That's why they're performing at Popejoy on Feb. 18 this season.

But how will people respond to the Nov. 6 performance of the East Village Opera Company, a group that turns music's best-loved arias into high-adrenaline rock anthems?

Davis described an East Village Opera Company performance as sounding something like Freddie Mercury and Queen doing "La donna é mobile" from "Rigoletto" or "Habanera" from "Carmen."

"It's like mixing the pomposity of opera with the pomposity of rock," Davis said.

It sounds like a kick. But will it sell? Popejoy's attitude is you don't know until you try.

"We know by ticket sales what our people like to see," he said. "But we also try to bring in things they didn't expect to see."

The deft balancing of sure things with calculated risks appears to have resulted this season in one of the best schedules ever at Popejoy.

Popejoy Presents, as the entertainment lineup is known, begins in the heart of autumn with the Shaolin Warriors on Oct. 21 and continues into the spring with performances of the Tony Award-winning musical "Monty Python's Spamalot" in June.

Davis said there's a lot of buzz about "Spamalot," an off-the-wall musical comedy that pays homage to the 1975 movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail," which was itself a whacked-out tribute to the King Arthur legends complete with castle walls and medieval weaponry.

"We keep hearing from people who have seen the show, and they say they died laughing," Davis said. "They say you don't have to be a Monty Python fan to love it. There is some audience interaction. They take someone from the audience up onto the stage."

"It's a fun show," he said. "But the language may be too adult for younger audience members."

That's the much anticipated end of the season.

The start is one of the unknown factors on the 2007-08 schedule.

"Shaolin Warriors" is described as a fully choreographed theatrical production, performed by the Buddhist monks of Shaolin Temple, monks known for their spiritual discipline and lethal martial arts.

"There is more to being a Shaolin monk than kung fu," Davis said. "This show takes you through the seasons of being a monk, the meditation and the martial arts."

Will the promise of the "stunning movement and spectacular imagery of kung fu" be enough to lure audiences into a monk's life?

Davis said it's difficult to know what will click with audiences.

He offers the Jan. 20 show "Drum" as an example. It's a production from Nova Scotia featuring dancers, drummers and singers representing black, Acadian, native and Celtic cultures.

"Tickets for 'Drum' are selling like hot cakes," Davis said. "We've added a second show. We are kind of stumped by it. But drumming is really pretty basic to human nature. It resonates in all of us, and this show - highlighting individual styles and then merging them - is a little bit different take on it."

The April 16 production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "HMS Pinafore" is another example from the "you never know" category.

"Two years ago, we had a chance to bring in (Gilbert and Sullivan's) 'Mikado,' " Davis said. "We thought it would be solid, but we did not expect the demand we got. People went crazy for it.

"Then we brought in (Gilbert and Sullivan's) 'Pirates of Penzance.' It also sold out like crazy. So, of course, we weren't going to pass up a chance at 'Pinafore.' "

"Solid Blues," a stellar collection of blues performers such as Mavis Staples, Charlie Musselwhite and the North Mississippi All-Stars, follows "Shaolin Warriors" on the Popejoy schedule with an Oct. 22 show.

Next up, on Nov. 2-4, is "Movin' Out," a Broadway musical which combines the songs of Billy Joel with the choreography and imagination of Twyla Tharp. Taking advantage of Joel's narrative style of songwriting, "Movin' Out" tells the story of five friends over two decades.

"It's an interesting piece because it is not a standard Broadway show," Davis said. "There is no dialogue, and the performers do not sing. They only dance. It is the band that does the vocals."

In addition to "Movin' Out," "HMS Pinafore" and "Spamalot," musicals on this season's Popejoy schedule include "Gypsy" (Feb. 1-3), "A Year With Frog and Toad" (March 2), "Peter Pan" (March 7-9), "Annie" (April 4-6) and "I Love a Piano" (May 2-4).

"Gypsy," music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, made its Broadway debut in 1959. Based on the memoirs of burlesque stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, it tells the story of Mama Rose, a hard-driving stage mom determined to make her daughter a vaudeville success.

" 'Gypsy,' the show, never won a a Tony because of the huge competition it faced," Davis said, "But it really stands up over time. So many women have wanted to play Mama Rose - Ethel Merman, Rosalind Russell, Angela Lansbury, Bette Midler, Bernadette Peters."

Davis said "A Year With Frog and Toad," based on the series of children's books by Arnold Lobel, and "Peter Pan" are perfect family fare.

"Annie" is a Popejoy favorite.

"The last time we brought in 'Annie,' four or five years ago, we didn't have enough seats to sell," Davis said. "It's got music that makes you go out the door humming."

"I Love a Piano" takes us through seven decades of American history via the music of Irving Berlin. Santa Fe native Sean Schwebke is one of the six cast members.

Also on the schedule are Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (Feb. 21), Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (Feb. 26) and the French ballet "Giselle" (Feb. 8).

"Giselle," by the composer Adolphe Adam, is the story of a young girl who loves to dance but, betrayed by a lover, dies of a broken heart. It will be performed by the St. Petersburg Ballet Theater.

Davis said it will be the first time on the Popejoy schedule for "Giselle."

"We decided to bring in something that wasn't 'Swan Lake,' 'The Nutcracker,' 'Sleeping Beauty' or 'Romeo and Juliet,' " he said. "There are more composers for the ballet than Tchaikovsky."

The Christmas season will be celebrated with a "Mariachi Christmas" (Dec. 11), now in its ninth annual performance in Popejoy Hall, and "Christmas From Dublin" (Dec. 16), featuring songs of the season performed by three Irish tenors.

But the Chieftains will perform in February, closer to St. Valentine's Day than to St. Patrick's Day in March.

"You're going to have to pay a lot of money to get the Chieftains on St. Patrick's Day," Davis said.

Among several other music and dance programs on the Popejoy schedule, there is one more notable unknown.

It's "Two for the Show" (April 11), starring ventriloquist Jay Johnson who appeared on "Soap," the TV series from the late 1970s and early '80s.

"What Johnson does is kind of go through the history of ventriloquism with the help of his dummies, who are partners to him," Davis said.

Like "Spamalot," the language in "Two for the Show" might be a too mature for kids.

But Johnson's dummies might be too mature for kids as well.

"There's Bob, his co-star on 'Soap,' and a tennis ball named Spaulding," Davis said. "But there's also a vulture and a severed head."

Ventriloquism, never mind severed-head dummies, is new to the Popejoy schedule.

Will it work? Only time will tell.

It's the tried-and-true that keeps people coming back to Popejoy Presents shows.

But it's the provocative and uncertain that keeps them on the edge of their seats.