Life of Brian Spin-off After Spamalot???

Even before the London critics have had their say on Spamalot, which has its press performance at the Palace Theatre tonight (16 October 2006) ahead of a star-studded opening gala tomorrow, Eric Idle is busy adapting another Monty Python film classic into a money-spinning musical blockbuster. According to media reports at the weekend, Idle will next year premiere a new musical called Not the Messiah, inspired by the Pythons’ “blasphemous” 1979 film satire Life of Brian and Handel’s 1742 oratorio Messiah. While the latter took its text from the King James Bible, the former caused religious outrage when it was released, spoofing the New Testament with the story of a man who, having been born in the adjacent stable to Jesus, is mistakenly hailed as the messiah and crucified. Idle and composer John Du Prez, the team behind Spamalot, have already half-completed Not the Messiah, which is due to open in June 2007 in Toronto. New songs will include “I Want to Be a Girl (Rather Than a Baby Jesus)” and “Hail to the Shoe (Rather than the Lord)”, while old favourites including the “Lumberjack Song” (in honour of the Canadian location for the premiere) and “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” (the closing number from Life of Brian, which Idle has also inserted into Spamalot) will also feature.

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