Direct from a sold-out run at the Kennedy Center, it was 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. Performances will begin Tuesday, October 31, 2023, ahead of the official opening night on 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 Jeffrey Finn’s leadership. Josh Rhodes (Bright Star, Cinderella) will return from the Kennedy Center production to direct and choreograph on Broadway.
“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!”
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!”
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.
Casting and additional creative team will be announced at a later date. The cast of the recent Kennedy Center production included two-time Tony Award nominee Alex Brightman as Sir Lancelot, Tony Award winner James Monroe Iglehart as King Arthur, Drama Desk Award nominee Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer as Lady of the Lake, and two-time Tony Award nominee Rob McClure as The Historian/Prince Herbert.