Photos - Joan Marcus. Pictured is the North American Touring CompanyMonty Python’s SPAMALOT, the smash hit Broadway and West End musical comes to Australia this Christmas. SPAMALOT will have its first performance at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne on November 23, with the official gala opening set for December 8.
Directed by Mike Nichols, Monty Python’s SPAMALOT has a book by Eric Idle, "lovingly ripped-off" from the screenplay of the Pythons’ best-loved film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.
On the announcement that SPAMALOT would play in Australia Eric Idle commented, "In revenge for the cricket, we are sending you Spamalot," adding, "actually we are anxious to see how the show plays upside down."
Boyett Ostar Productions, the lead producer of the Broadway, London and Las Vegas productions, will also head the production team of Monty Python's SPAMALOT in Australia.
Winner of the 2005 Tony Award for Best Musical, along with more awards than any other show that season on Broadway, Monty Python’s SPAMALOT is up for more Olivier Awards than any other production in London this year. SPAMALOT has broken house records at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre and at the Palace Theatre in the West End. Famed film and stage director Mike Nichols won his eighth Tony Award for his direction of SPAMALOT.
In addition to the myriad legitimate theatrical awards - including the 2005 Tony for Best Musical - with which SPAMALOT has been honored, it also holds The Guinness World Record for “World’s Largest Coconut Orchestra” which was set on March 23, 2006 when 1,789 fans gathered in New York’s Shubert Alley to commemorate SPAMALOT’s first anniversary on Broadway.
Telling the legendary tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and their quest for the Holy Grail, Monty Python’s SPAMALOT features a chorus line of dancing divas (and serfs), flatulent Frenchmen, killer rabbits and a legless knight.
Featuring a new score with music and lyrics by Eric Idle and John Du Prez, SPAMALOT also has three songs from the 1975 film. Other members of the SPAMALOT creative team include Casey Nicholaw (choreography), and multiple Olivier Award-winners Tim Hatley (sets and costumes) and Hugh Vanstone (lighting).
In case you've been living under a giant foot for the past 40 years, Monty Python isn't a person, but a group of British actors and writers (and one American) that performed their famous comedy show Monty Python's Flying Circus on BBC television from 1969 to 1974, with subsequent fame and success. Changing comedy forever, a series of hugely popular motion pictures and live tours made Monty Python and their members into international superstars.
Mike Nichols (Director), formerly half of the legendary comedy team of Nichols and May, has been acclaimed as one of the leading directors of stage and screen for more than 30 years. His Broadway directing credits include Barefoot in the Park, Luv, The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, The Prisoner of Second Avenue and The Real Thing, for all of which he was awarded the Tony for Best Direction. His film credits include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate (Academy Award for Best Direction), Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge, Silkwood, Working Girl, Postcards From the Edge, Regarding Henry, The Birdcage, Primary Colors and Closer, and for HBO Wit and Angels in America. Mike Nichols has received the George Abbott Award, the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honor, and has been honored by the Museum of Television and Radio and the Lincoln Center Film Society. Monty Python’s Spamalot will mark Mike Nichols’ Australian directing debut.
Eric Idle (Book, Lyrics and Music) has multi-hyphenated his way through life, from being a writer and actor in the legendary Monty Python TV series and movies, to the creator and director of The Rutles. He has appeared on stage singing rude songs with John Du Prez at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl as well as performing in two highly successful tours, Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python (2000) and The Greedy Bastard Tour (2003), for which they journeyed 15,000 miles across North America in a bus. His Greedy Bastard Diary of that tour is available from Harper Collins. Their latest work, a comic Oratorio called Not The Messiah will be premiered shortly in Toronto. His play Pass the Butler ran for five months in London’s West End; he has written two novels, Hello Sailor and The Road to Mars, a children’s book, The Quite Remarkable Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat, and a bedside companion, The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book. Spamalot has already won him a Tony Award, a Grammy Award, and the respect of his wife and children.
John du Prez (Composer). A Trevelyan Scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, and Associate of the Royal College of Music, du Prez entered the film industry in 1978 composing additional music for Monty Python’s Life of Brian. This began a long association with Eric Idle, leading eventually to their current writing partnership. He has scored more than 20 feature films including The Meaning of Life, A Private Function, A Fish Called Wanda, Once Bitten, UHF and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I, II and III. Other Python projects include the Contractual Obligation Album, Monty Python at the Hollywood Bowl and The Fairly Incomplete & Rather Badly Illustrated Monty Python Song Book. He was musical director for Eric Idle’s two North American stage tours, Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python (2000) and The Greedy Bastard Tour (2003). Spamalot marked John du Prez’s Broadway debut.
Monty Python's Spamalot
A new musical lovingly ripped off from the motion picture
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
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