Camelot — the Lerner and Loewe musical inspired by the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table — has been so perennially popular since it opened on Broadway in 1960 that it can seem unlikely that any modern American doesn’t know the story from beginning to end. However, an angry reader once complained about a story that mentioned who dies in “Romeo and Juliet” — so consider this a spoiler alert:

We have a question to consider. Is Lancelot, the only non-British knight to have a place at the Round Table, the villain of this oh-so-British story?

Consider: King Arthur creates a new legal system in which the traditional policy of “might makes right” is replaced by the principal of “might for right” in which everyone — including the king — is bound to obey the law. Arthur’s wife and the love of his life, Queen Guinevere, is his full and equal partner in ruling this new and improved realm. Britain experiences a golden age. Then comes Sir Lancelot, whose arrival sets in motion a chain of events that ends with a destruction of the Round Table and the end of Arthur’s marriage as well.

Michal Nowicki, who stars as Sir Lancelot in Diamond Head Theatre’s spring production of the Broadway hit and Hollywood film classic, sees the French knight as more victim than villain.

“He is what breaks up the table, but I think he is also a victim — a victim of circumstance, maybe — and I think it also shows that you can’t really choose when you fall in love,” Nowicki said. “I think that’s the romantic pull of the show.

“The unfortunate circumstance for him is he meets Guinevere, and he falls in love with her, and I think for him it’s the first time he actually had those sort of feelings, and he doesn’t know how to deal with them,” Nowicki said. “He was really studying up on the noble Christian principles and virtues, and refining his skills as a knight, and also being very devout. So, when he sees Guinevere it’s, ‘Oh, my goodness! I’m feeling something really new right now!’”

Much mention is made, early in the show, about Lancelot’s “purity.” The European concepts of chivalry and courtly love come from a later historical era, but Lancelot may well have viewed women as idealized creatures who might give a knight a handkerchief or other article to carry when he was jousting or preparing to go off to battle.

“To me he reads as very closeted in that way,” Nowicki continued. “Up to the point he meets Guinevere, when he is introduced by Arthur, it’s almost like he only knows about women from books. He admits to Arthur in their first interaction that his strength comes from purity, which kind of alludes to the fact that he was celibate.”

Lancelot is also a stranger and outsider in Camelot, and, Nowicki adds, “socially inept.”

“When Arthur asks Lancelot to explain to Guinevere the training program for knights that they’ve been discussing, Lancelot is surprised. It sounds a little sexist in a way, but he says, ‘Wouldn’t she find this really tedious? Affairs of chivalry are not too complicated for her to understand?’ Arthur and Guinevere see each other very much as equals, and Lancelot again is completely out of place.”

Joining Nowicki as the other two corners of the tragic romantic triangle are Thomas Johnson (King Arthur) and Lea Woods Almanza (Guinevere).

NOWICKI CAN relate to Lancelot’s experiences as an outsider. He was born in Poland (his first name is pronounced “Mee-how,” the pronunciation indicated with a Polish letter that looks like “an ‘l’ with a little bar through it” that doesn’t appear on English keyboards).

His first experience as an outsider came when he was in elementary school and his family lived briefly in Germany. In 2000 it happened again when his family moved to the United States; Nowicki spoke no English when they arrived, but he picked it up with the help of an English as a Second Language program and is now fluent. He spent his senior year in college in Paris and became fluent in French as well.

“I think that gives me a little insight, when Lancelot doesn’t understand a couple of words, (because) I’ve experienced that myself growing up,” he said.

The role is a dream come true for him. Since coming to Hawaii eight years ago, Nowicki has sung in local choirs, performed with the Hawaii Opera Theatre in 2010, worked as a stagehand for DHT’s 2011 production of “Cinderella,” appeared in the ensemble of DHT’s revival of “Sunset Boulevard” and then graduated to a speaking role as Ernst Ludwig, a Nazi, in “Cabaret” in 2013. (“A Polish playing a German. That was definitely interesting,” he recalled with a chuckle.)

His most recent role was as one of the anonymous Seabees in DHT’s 2015 staging of “South Pacific.” Now Nowicki is one of the leads.

“I feel really blessed to be able to do this; 16 years ago I thought my dream of doing theater was dead when I moved to the United States,” he said. “Good things can come to you in time. If you’re passionate about something, pursue it. Don’t give up on it.“