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Is he God or Godot? An agent of the devil or an agent of the William Morris Agency? Or is he, as some have argued, a fictitious character invented in 1969 by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin in a desperate attempt to find a title for their rather silly TV show? Whatever the truth, he is the eponymous hero who fronts “The Flying Circus,” The Holy Grail, The Life of Brian, The Meaning of Life, And Now For Something Completely Different and who appeared Live at Drury Lane, City Center and the Hollywood Bowl. He has fronted numerous books including The Big Red Book and The Papperbok, as well as many CDs, DVDs and matching ties and handkerchiefs. He is currently in retirement in an old jokes home near Dover, anxiously awaiting Nighthood and a Knightnurse. SPAMALOT is his first Broadway show. Really, now. We all know that Monty Python is not a person, but the group of British actors and writers (and one American) mentioned above that performed their famous comedy show “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” on the BBC from 1969 to 1974, with subsequent international fame and success. Monty Python TimelineOctober 27, 1939 – John Cleese born in England November 22, 1940 – Terry Gilliam born in Minneapolis, MN January 8, 1941 – Graham Chapman born in England February 1, 1942 – Terry Jones born in England March 29, 1943 – Eric Idle born in England May 5, 1943 – Michael Palin born in England May 11, 1969 – John Cleese and Graham Chapman met Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin May 23, 1969 – BBC gave the go-ahead to create a 13-episode comedy program October 5, 1969 to January 11, 1970 – First year of Python comedy aired on BBC September 15, 1970 to December 22, 1970 – Second year aired September 28, 1971 – The Python first film, And Now for Something Completely Different, opened in England October 19, 1972 to January 18, 1973– Third year of Python comedy aired on BBC 1974 –Monty Python and the Holy Grail filmed in Scotland. October 31, 1974 to December 5, 1974 – Fourth year of Python comedy aired on BBC (Produced only 6 new episodes and without John Cleese.) 1974 – American PBS stations began to run all 45 episodes on late Sunday night March, 1975 – Monty Python and The Holy Grail opened in L.A. August 17, 1979 – Monty Python’s Life of Brian opened in New York City June 25, 1982 – Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl opened in New York City March 30, 1983 – Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life opened in the U.S. October 4, 1989 – Graham Chapman died of cancer 2002 – Eric Idle and veteran Python composer John Du Prez wrote the first draft of the SPAMALOT script and produced a demo disc of the score. March 17, 2005 – Five of the living Pythons and the ashes of Graham Chapman (in the urn) are reunited at the Broadway opening night of MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT at the Sam S. Shubert Theatre. |
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