October 17, 2006
New Monty Python Adaptation To Debut in Toronto
Following the success of Spamalot, another part of the Monty Python canon is about to be "lovingly ripped off". This time it's the British comedy troupe's 1979 film, The Life of Brian.
The story, which follows the life of a man born on the same night and street as Jesus Christ, will be adapted by the same duo that worked on Spamalot: Python Eric Idle and John Du Prez. The oratorio will debut in Toronto, at Luminato ("Toronto's Festival of Arts and Creativity"); apparently this is owed to Idle's observation about American audiences: "You think people would really have a finale where people are crucified? I'm not sure people are ready for this. ... I might have to start that somewhere else other than America."
More on the production, entitled "Not The Messiah", can be found in the Yahoo! News story.
|
But they already used up "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" in Spamalot.
I thought Spamalot was good but not great, it was too much Broadway parody in the Producer's mold and not enough straight Python. I think this actually has more potential, especially looking forward to the sermon on the mount.
Perhaps the Playbill article contains a couple of new details, but the show was announced back at the end of July and garnered media attention at the time. In fact, Ron even mentioned it in his August 1st news round-up:
http://www.torontoist.com/archives/2006/08/hottest_night_e.php