Kennedy Center's SPAMALOT Is Coming to Broadway

The search for the grail continues, on Broadway this fall! Direct from a sold out run at the Kennedy Center, producer Jeffrey Finn (Vice President & Executive Producer of Theater and Artistic Director, Broadway Center Stage at The Kennedy Center) announced today that the Tony Award-winning Best Musical comedy Monty Python’s SPAMALOT will return to Broadway this fall at the St. James Theatre (246 West 44th Street). Performances begin Tuesday, October 31, 2023, and the official opening knight is Thursday, November 16, 2023.

SPAMALOT will be the first production from the Kennedy Center’s Broadway Center Stage series to transfer to Broadway since its inception in 2018 under Finn’s leadership. Josh Rhodes (Bright Star, Cinderella) will return from the Kennedy Center production to direct and choreograph on Broadway.

The musical, which first galloped onto Broadway in 2005, features a book & lyrics by Eric Idle and music by John Du Prez and Eric Idle. The original Broadway production was nominated for fourteen Tony Awards and won three, including Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical (Mike Nichols) and Best Featured Actress (Sara Ramirez as The Lady of the Lake) and featured choreography by Casey Nicholaw.

"I’m thrilled to see SPAMALOT back on Broadway,” said Eric Idle. “More than ever, it seems we need a good laugh and it's inspiring to see audiences still embracing this, the most happy of shows I have ever worked on. So put the News Cycle on Rinse Cycle and take a couple of hours to relax with the Lady of the Lake, King Arthur and the Knights Who Say Ni because we're not dead yet!"

“As we near the almost 20th anniversary of the original production, it is a great honor to restore SPAMALOT’s place on Broadway for fans who have longed for its return and for new audiences to meet the Knights of the Round Table for the first time,” said producer Jeffrey Finn. “I’m thrilled to continue the Kennedy Center’s legacy of bringing great productions from D.C. to audiences in the town that never sleeps – Camelot!...I mean, New York!”

Lovingly ripped from the film classic, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, SPAMALOT has everything that makes a great knight at the theatre, from flying cows to killer rabbits, British royalty to French taunters, dancing girls, rubbery shrubbery, and of course, the lady of the lake. SPAMALOT features well-known song titles such as “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” “The Song That Goes Like This,” “Find Your Grail” and more that have become beloved classics in the musical theatre canon.

"We’ll consider announcing casting and additional creative team at a later date."

TICKETS:

The Fan Pre-sale will begin on Tuesday, August 8th at 10AM ET. Sign up now via the Spamalot website for exclusive first access to tickets. Tickets will go on-sale to the general public on Wednesday, August 9 at 10AM ET.

To continue your quest to purchase tickets, please visit SpamalotTheMusical.com.

As the official card sponsor of Spamalot, American Express® Card Members have access to tickets through the American Express Preferred Seating program, available exclusively to eligible Card Members. Terms apply. 

BIOS:

Eric Idle (Music, Lyrics & Book) is one of the original six creators of Monty Python’s Flying Circus which began life on BBCTV in 1969. They eventually made five feature films, including two of the top ten comedy movies of all time. Eric, together with longtime collaborator and Composer John Du Prez, adapted The Holy Grail, into the record-breaking musical Monty Python’s Spamalot, which ran for almost five years on Broadway. It was nominated for 13 Tonys, winning 3, including Best Director for Mike Nichols and the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2005, plus a Drama Desk Award, and a Grammy for the authors. They then created a Comic Oratorio Not The Messiah, He’s a Very Naughty Boy based on Monty Python’s Life of Brian, which premiered in Toronto, and played The Sydney Opera House, The Hollywood Bowl, Wolf Trap, and Carnegie Hall and was eventually filmed with most of the Pythons at The Royal Albert Hall for the 40th Anniversary of Monty Python. Eric wrote, directed and starred in The Rutles, the world’s first mockumentary, and in 2012 he sang his own song Always Look On the Bright Side of Life, before a billion people at the Closing Ceremony of the London Olympics. In 2014 he directed and appeared alongside Conductor John Du Prez in the Monty Python final reunion show One Down Five To Go which sold out London’s O2 Arena for ten nights. In 2018 his Sortabiography Always Look on the Bright of Life became a New York Times Best seller. In 2019 he was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer which he survived thanks to early diagnosis and great Doctors. Following his appearance on The Masked Singer in 2022, he launched The Bright Side Fund (Standup2Cancer/Eric Idle) to help fund Research. His musical play What About Dick? with songs by JDP is currently playing on Netflix.

John Du Prez (Music) Born in 1946 he was so lucky to grow up in the World Heritage City of Bath with its International Festival and rich musical life. In 1965, armed with a bed roll and tape recorder, he collected and studied Sicillian folk music which won him a Trevelyan Scholarship to Oxford. There he studied Mandarin Chinese (of course) and spent a year in Hong Kong during which he was Principal Horn of the HK Philharmonic. Then on to London to gain a music degree & ARCM diploma and join the staff of London University. Meeting the Pythons in 1978 he started writing film music (Life of Brian) and having multiple chart success with Modern Romance. Their club hit “Everybody Salsa” won MR the New York DJ Syndicate 1981 award for Best New Band. He has scored more than 20 feature films including The Meaning of Life, A Private Function, A Fish Called Wanda, Once Bitten, UHF and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (with its Platinum soundtrack album). Other Python projects include the Contractual Obligation Album, Monty Python at the Hollywood Bowl and editing The Monty Python Song Book. In 2001 he co-wrote Monty Python’s Spamalot with Eric Idle which won them both Grammys, the 2005 Tony for Best Musical and a Tony Nomination for the score. He conducted their comic oratorio Not The Messiah on a world tour which included Sydney Opera House, Hollywood Bowl (LA Phil) and finally the Albert Hall (BBC Symphony) for the Python 40th Anniversary. He was MD for the London O2 Arena farewell concerts - Monty Python Live (Mostly) - and recently scored the Bafta Award winning animation series The Clangers. For more info see johnduprez.com.

Josh Rhodes (Direction & Choreography) is an American director and choreographer who recently directed and choreographed the critically acclaimed productions of Spamalot and The Who’s Tommy for Broadway Center Stage at the Kennedy Center. In New York City, Josh directed and choreographed, Dear World, Mack & Mabel, and Grand Hotel (Encores!). Josh’s other productions as a director are Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville, and Guys and Dolls, Cabaret (Old Globe), Showboat (Bucks County Playhouse), and the Asolo Repertory’s bold new productions of Cabaret, Hair, The Sound of Music, Guys and Dolls, and Evita.  At the Muny in St Louis, Josh has directed and choreographed Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Jersey Boys, Paint Your Wagon, and the recent production of Chess. On Broadway Josh choreographed Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, It Shoulda Been You, First Date, and Bright Star. On London’s West End, he choreographed Carousel at the English National Opera and Sweeney Todd starring Emma Thompson. Other choreography credits include the filmed production of Company starring Neil Patrick Harris, and Sondheim: The Birthday Concert for PBS, the U.K. tour of Doctor Dolittle. Josh recently made his film director debut with the musical film, Beau. The film has garnered multiple laurels and awards in festivals all over North America. Josh is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan.

Jeffrey Finn (Producer) is a Tony-Award winning producer, having produced over twenty shows on Broadway. At The Kennedy Center, he serves as the Vice President & Executive Producer of Theater, a position created in 2016 with a mission to produce, curate, commission, and oversee all theater at the Kennedy Center, in addition to presenting and programming the Broadway national touring shows.  Jeffrey is the creator and Artistic Director of Broadway Center Stage, producing beloved musicals with stars and talent direct from Broadway for DC audiences. He develops new works for the stage, is a lecturer on strategic fundraising, and is a proud member of The Independent Presenters Network and The Broadway League.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is America’s living memorial to President John F. Kennedy, attracting millions of visitors each year to more than 2,000 performances, events, and exhibits. With its artistic affiliates, the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera, the Center is one of the nation’s busiest performing arts centers dedicated to providing world-class art, powerful education, and outstanding memorial experiences to the broadest possible constituency. Through the acclaimed Broadway Center Stage series, which began in 2018, the Center has produced sold-out runs of award-winning musicals with some of Broadway’s biggest stars. Spamalot continues the Kennedy Center’s long legacy of bringing first class productions from America’s National Cultural Center to Broadway.

Monty Python. 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 impresario 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. This is his first Broadway show. Further details: www.PythOnline.com

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