It would seem a tad risky to base a full-scale musical on a series of surreal sketches mocking King Arthur and his Knights in their alleged search for the Holy Grail. Apparently, not for Monty Python, the enigmatic front man for “The Flying Circus,” “And Now for Something Completely Different,” “The Life of Brian,” “The Meaning of Life,” and “The Holy Grail.” Python has perfected the use of clever wordplay, innuendo, physical comedy, a subversive point of view and just plain silliness. So, why not a Broadway show.

Monty Python is actually a creation of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Eric Idle for a television series they launched in 1969 on the BBC. “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” ran for just four seasons but developed an immense following. In 1974, all 45 episodes began airing on PBS stations throughout the US. According to co-founder Eric Idle, “Python was a unique organism of six writers/performers. If it made us laugh, it was in.”

As their television series was winding down, the popular British comedy troupe began filming “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” The film opened in Los Angeles in March of 1975 and LA would never be the same. (For A Lot About the Movie, click here)

And Now for something Completely Different But Kind of the Same

“I had been looking for a good idea for a musical for my partner John Du Prez and me to work on,” Idle explains. “Since we’d done two little musicals and we do write silly songs, we thought let’s write a tale. It occurred to me that ‘The Holy Grail’ was perfect because it's got a legend, familiar characters and you know what the quest is, roughly. It’s the perfect mock heroic subject. Comedy has to have something high to mock and so the Arthurian legend is perfect as we found when we made the ‘Grail’ and as we found when we made the musical — you have plenty of room for play.”

The musical features a book by Idle based on the screenplay he co-wrote with his fellow Pythons. The film worked theatrically because it’s about characters and scenes and most everything could be done on stage. “We did need to develop a plot, though.” Idle admits. “After three different endings, we finally came up with an ending that resolved the plotline and emotional journey of the characters, and had a romantic climax.”

Idle and Du Prez wrote the first draft of the Spamalot script in 2002 and produced a demo of the score. “The key is to poke fun at the form or genre you are in, so we were mocking musical theater. John and I wrote the songs that we wanted to hear.”

On the Bright Side

The score includes songs from the original film ("Brave Sir Robin" and "Knights of the Round Table") as well as the Python signature "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”

“We always knew that ‘Bright Side’ was something up our sleeve,” Idle says. “It’s the closest to a Broadway song that you can really get. So we thought let’s put it in the main body of the play and have Patsy sing it to Arthur when he is lost and depressed and fed up.”

After 17 drafts and a tryout in Chicago, Monty Python’s Spamalot opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre. Five of the living Pythons (and an urn with the ashes of Graham Chapman who died of cancer in 1989) reunited for the premiere. It was nominated for 14 Tony Awards in 2005, winning three including Best Musical.

Idle claims the homage to other musicals in Spamalot came from the musical arranger and the choreographer. “They are fun little references but they are not really essential to the enjoyment of the show. The only particular blast we do is to a certain type of Broadway song. Ours is called ‘The Song that Goes Like This’ which people have said is Andrew Lloyd Webber. It wasn’t aimed specifically at him, although later on we did take a cheap and nasty swipe at him. But he got his money back because he put the show on in London.”

Python Humor Prevails

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Monty Python and Eric Idle seems amazed by their staying power. “Oh, it is totally staggering that it is still on television and on film and people know it and love it. It breaks all the expected rules of the survival of comedy in time. Comedy is supposed to be of the moment that it is created.”

Python humor doesn’t rely on current events, personalities or specific cultural references. That’s why it doesn’t feel “dated” and continues to appeal to a broad audience of all ages.

“I think Python humor may be the 10-year-old humor in everybody, that childhood thing,” explains Idle. “Maybe our innocence is lost and Python goes into those areas. It’s very difficult to express in a few words what it is. If you examine some of the sketches they are all written by six different people and you would never know when there was a different writer on, a different set of ideas. Michael Palin’s stuff is different from a Cleese/Chapman sketch as it is different from my material. So this compendium is given a sort of pseudo form by the stamp of Terry Gilliam who gave it an image.”

We Eat Ham and Jam and SPAM a Lot

Spamalot mocks the well-known Arthurian legend and Broadway musicals with great abandon. Yet, those who have never experienced Monty Python (all three of you) will still find it hilarious. John O’Hurley, a "Seinfeld" alum who currently stars as King Arthur, insists that he’s never laughed as hard and as long as he did when he first saw Spamalot. “I had to turn my head and stop looking at the stage so I could stop laughing it was so funny. The more I laughed the more I missed the next joke. I think the jokes hit every two or three seconds.”

The show’s title comes partly from the lyric in an infamous Python skit about SPAM, one of the few meat products excluded from the British food rationing during World War II and a number of years after the war. Clearly, the British grew sick and tired of it. Idle certainly did. (For A Lot About SPAM, click here)

“I’m a veggie,” he admits. “I actually don’t eat SPAM, I just use it for comedy.”

And then there is the rhyme and reason. “Quite early on I thought of Spamalot because it goes nicely with Camelot. At first, we spelled it SPAMELOT and then we got a letter from the owners of Camelot who said, ‘we love you very much but we’re going to have to sue you, you can’t use that title.’ So we did adjust the spelling slightly and it’s lovely that it’s Spamalot and Camelot — it was a perfect title, really.”

For More on Spamalot, click here. To hear John O’Hurley’s podcast, click here.

Production photos:  Joan Marcus; Eric Idle photo by Larry Mah;
photo from "Monty Python and The Holy Grail" courtesy of Monty Python.

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