Michael Palin News

PBS travels the globe, from China to Havana and beyond, to give viewers a sweeping look at many of the most fascinating places on Earth

The Hale Center Theater Orem is thrilled to produce the regional premiere of "Betty Blue Eyes," a rollicking new British musical about rekindling the spark in a waning marriage, letting some underdogs have their well-deserved day and introducing us to the lovable porker whose blue-eyed presence makes it all possible.

On this day in 2005, Monty Python's SPAMALOT, the smash hit musical lovingly ripped-off from the internationally famous comedy team's most popular motion picture, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, began previews at the Shubert Theater on Broadway.

???????The National Campaign for the Arts has launched its new website, www.forthearts.org.uk, to increase public understanding of and support for national and local government investment in the arts.

If Studio Theatre has a go-to playwright, it's been Caryl Churchill, the award-winning British innovator and provocateur, whose season-opening 'Cloud 9' at the theater is as brash and challenging as anything on area stages, and yet was first written over 30 years ago.

The Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre has become known for not only its productions of classic Broadway musicals but its part in bringing a number of area and regional premieres to the Frederick stage. In 2009, Way Off Broadway was one of the very first theatres in the country to receive the rights to produce The Wedding Singer, an 80's inspired musical comedy based on the Adam Sandler film. In recent seasons, the theatre, the Frederick -area's only year-round professional producing theatre, has produced several movies-turned-musicals. In fact, the 2013 Season was named "Hollywood Meets Broadway," all of the shows having been hits on the silver screen and Broadway stage.

             Lovingly ripped off from the classic film comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spamalot tells the legendary tale of King Arthur's quest to find the Holy Grail, and features a bevy of beautiful show girls, not to mention cows, killer rabbits, and French people.  Throughout the show, Arthur, traveling with his servant Patsy, recruits several knights to accompany him on his quest, including Sir Bedevere, Sir Robin, Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad.  On their way, they meet the Lady of the Lake, Not Dead Fred, the Black Knight, and the Knights who say Ni.

Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi, Olga Kurylenko and Timothy Dalton are in final discussions to star in Armando Iannucci's political satire THE DEATH OF STALIN.

Starz announced today that Michelle Fairley ("Game of Thrones," "Rebellion") will play the role of Margaret Beaufort in THE WHITE PRINCESS

The Actors Company Theatre (TACT) announced today that the TACT 2016 Spring Gala will honor former TACT Co-Artistic Director and current company member Simon Jones.

As president of The Royal Theatrical Fund, the star says the public would be surprised at the famous names who apply for assistance.

Tenri Cultural Institute  presents Border Crossings, a cultural exchange featuring works by American composer Richard Cameron-Wolfe and Ukrainian composer Volodymyr Runchak today, March 11th at 8pm.

Tenri Cultural Institute  presents Border Crossings, a cultural exchange featuring works by American composer Richard Cameron-Wolfe and Ukrainian composer Volodymyr Runchak on Friday, March 11th at 8pm.

English actor, comedian, writer and producer, John Cleese, achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he co-founded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus and the four Monty Python films: And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.

In a video published on Big Think, Comedian John Cleese said, 'I'm offended every day. For example, the British newspapers every day offend me with their laziness, their nastiness, and their inaccuracy, but I'm not going to expect someone to stop that happening; I just simply speak out about it.'  He goes on to say, 'And the whole point about humor, the whole point about comedy, and believe you me I thought about this, is that all comedy is critical. Even if you make a very inclusive joke like how would you make God laugh? Answer: Tell him your plans. Now that's about the human condition; it's not excluding anyone.'

Palo Alto Players, the Peninsula's first theatre company, announces its 86th season - 'From Stage to Screen and Back Again' - featuring a collection of plays and musicals whose time-honored stories have been theatrical hits both on stage and in film. The 2016-17 line-up, beginning September 2016, was unveiled Saturday, January 30 by Artistic Director Patrick Klein and Managing Director Diana Lynn Berenstein at the company's annual Season Announcement Party and includes Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID; THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK; A DAY IN HOLLYWOOD, A NIGHT IN THE UKRAINE; Monty Python's SPAMALOT and THE GRADUATE. All performances are held at the Lucie Stern Theater located at 1305 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto. Subscriptions are on sale now online at www.paplayers.org or by phone at 650.329.0891. Individual tickets for the September show go on sale in August and for the remaining season beginning in October.

PITTSBURGH – Experience a concert that is both bone-rattling and sidesplitting when Igudesman & Joo return to perform the conductor-less “Scary Concert” with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at Heinz Hall tonight, October 31 and the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theater at West Virginia University on November 2.

Monty Python legend Terry Jones is to direct the world premiere of Jeepers Creepers, a play about comedy star Marty Feldman and his ambitious wife, Lauretta.

PITTSBURGH – Experience a concert that is both bone-rattling and sidesplitting when Igudesman & Joo return to perform the conductor-less “Scary Concert” with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at Heinz Hall on October 31 and the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theater at West Virginia University on November 2.

Das Musical erzahlt in außerst ungewohnlicher Form die legendare Geschichte von Konig Artus und den Rittern der Tafelrunde. Es beruht auf der mittlerweile klassischen Filmkomodie Monty Python and the Holy Grail (deutscher Titel: Die Ritter der Kokosnuss), handelt von Rittern und ihren verqueren Heldentaten und „bietet eine Menge schoner Girls, Kuhe, Killerkaninchen und Franzosen", so Eric Idle. Das Grundungsmitglied des unvergleichlichen Monty Python-Teams hat die Filmhandlung fur das Musical verandert, bleibt aber dem schragen Monty-Python-Humor treu. Auch die Filmmusik wurde von ihm und John Du Prez fur das Musical umgearbeitet: teils neu komponiert, teils musikalisch aufgefrischt. Und das Wagnis, den eigenwilligen englischen Humor in die amerikanischste aller Kunstgattungen zu uberfuhren, wurde belohnt. In New York premierte MONTY PYTHON'S SPAMALOT im Marz 2005, gewann drei Tony Awards, unter anderem den Tony Award fur das beste Musical und lief erfolgreich bis 2009. Auch in Australien und London wurde und wird SPAMALOT mit viel Erfolg gespielt.