The Knights Who Sing "Ni!"

By Richard Zoglin

PRACTICALLY EVERY successful Broadway musical these days seems to look backward in one way or another. There are musicals inspired by old rock groups (Mamma Mia), old movies (Hairspray) and old husbands of Liza Minnelli's (The Boy from Oz). So it may be no surprise that somebody decided to make a musical based on the 1975 film comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But Spamalot--scheduled to open on Broadway in March--could give the tired old genre a happy jolt. The movie, after all, seems a challenge from the get-go: an unwieldy hodgepodge of slapstick, splatter film, absurdism and animation, not to mention a grubby, mud-caked re-creation of medieval England. This is material for a Broadway musical?

"Luckily we don't have to use horses," says Eric Idle, the former Python stalwart who penned the book and co-wrote new songs with John Du Prez. As Python fans will recall, Holy Grail begins with the clip-clop sound of knights approaching on horsebackonly to be revealed traveling on foot, knocking coconut shells together for the sound effect. Other memorable scenes from the film may be a little tougher to pull off, like the belligerent knight who keeps fighting and taunting even as his limbs are hacked off one by one. "We've had long and anxious talks about it," admits Idle. "We're not going to spill blood all over the stage; the dancers might slip and break their legs. But there are a lot of things we're going to try."

Holy Grail has long been the most popular of the films made by the six comics who formed the Monty Python troupe. In a February 2004 online poll, it was even named (no joke) the No. 1 British film of all time. That cult reputation--along with a cast that includes David Hyde Pierce, Hank Azaria and Tim Curry--has already made Spamalot a hot ticket in Chicago, where it will begin a pre-Broadway run in late December. But the show's key to success may be its unlikely director, Mike Nichols. His understated, very American comic sensibility might seem an odd fit with the Pythons' quirky, lowbrow-meets-highbrow satire. Yet the comic alchemy could bring Broadway something it hasn't experienced since The Producers: real belly laughs. "There are not enough silly shows," says Idle. "You can't rely on Washington for all your laughs." --By Richard Zoglin