John Cleese Musical Wandas into West End???

Comedian John Cleese, who reputedly waived his full royalty payments on Monty Python musical Spamalot, appears to have been inspired by its Broadway and West End success so much that he’s penning a show of his own. He told the Sunday Telegraph that he’s been working on a musical version of his 1988 hit film A Fish Called Wanda with his 24-year-old daughter Camilla: “We’ve knocked the story into shape. We’re going to try a few lyrics and if it turns out we are no good – which is what I expect – we’ll get a new lyricist in. Right now we’re working on the story and trying to figure out where the songs should go. It’s very early days, though.”

The film, in which Cleese co-starred with Jamie Lee Curtis, tells of four very different characters who team up to commit armed robbery, then try to doublecross each other for the loot. It was a surprise box office hit, winning Cleese and co-writer Charles Crichton a best screenplay Oscar nomination, and also reunited him with fellow Python Michael Palin. This recent development may help soothe the pain for Python fans still reeling from the recent news of Spamalot’s closure in January (See News, 2 Jun 2008).