Spamalot to Open in West End on October 2, Tickets on Sale February 21

Monty Python's SPAMALOT, the Tony Award-winning Best Musical of 2005, comes home to London in October 2006. SPAMALOT will have its first performance at the Palace Theatre in London's West End on 2 October 2006. Casting will be announced shortly and tickets will go on sale on 21 February 2006.

Directed by Mike Nichols, Monty Python's SPAMALOT has a book by Eric Idle, "lovingly ripped-off" from the screenplay of the Pythons' best- loved film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.

Winning more Best Musical awards than any other show in New York this year, including the Drama Desk and Outer Critics' Circle Awards for Best Musical along with the Tony, SPAMALOT has broken house records, playing to standing-room-only audiences since opening to critical acclaim in March, 2005 at the flagship Shubert Theatre on Broadway. In addition, Mike Nichols won his eighth Tony Award for direction of the musical.

Telling the legendary tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and their quest for the Holy Grail, Monty Python's SPAMALOT features a chorus line of dancing divas (and serfs), flatulent Frenchmen, killer rabbits and a legless knight.

Featuring a new score with music and lyrics by Eric Idle and John Du Prez, SPAMALOT also has three songs from the 1975 film. Other members of the SPAMALOT creative team include Casey Nicholaw (choreography), and multiple Olivier Award-winners Tim Hatley (sets and costumes) and Hugh Vanstone (lighting).

Monty Python's SPAMALOT is produced by Boyett Ostar Productions. Boyett Ostar Productions have produced the Broadway transfers of the London's National Theatre successes – The Pillowman, Democracy, Jumpers and The History Boys which will open on Broadway in April this year. Their production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White is currently playing at Broadway's Marquis Theater.

Mike Nichols (Director) received the 2005 Tony Award for his direction of Monty Python's Spamalot. Formerly half of the legendary comedy team of Nichols and May, Mike Nichols has been acclaimed as one of the leading directors of stage and screen for more than 30 years. His Broadway directing credits include Barefoot in the Park, Luv, The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, The Prisoner of Second Avenue and The Real Thing, for all of which he was awarded the Tony for Best Direction. His film credits include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate (Academy Award for Best Direction), Catch-22, Carnal Knowledge, Silkwood, Working Girl, Postcards From The Edge, Regarding Henry, The Birdcage, Primary Colors and Closer, and for HBO Wit and Angels in America. Mike Nichols has received the George Abbott Award, the National Medal of Arts and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors , and has been honored by the Museum of Television and Radio and the Lincoln Center Film Society.

Eric Idle (Book, Lyrics and Music) has multi-hyphenated his way through life assiduously avoiding a proper job, from being a writer and actor in the semi- legendary Monty Python TV series and movies, to the creator and director of The Rutles, the pre-fab four, whose legend will last a lunchtime. He has appeared on stage in drag singing rude songs at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl as well as performing in two highly successful US tours, Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python (2000) and The Greedy Bastard Tour (2003), for which he journeyed 15,000 miles across North America in a bus. His Greedy Bastard Diary of that tour is published in the UK by Orion. His play Pass the Butler ran for five months at The Globe Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue in London's West End; he has written two novels, Hello Sailor and The Road to Mars, a children's book, The Quite Remarkable Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat, and a bedside companion, The Rutland Dirty Weekend Book. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge where he was President of The Footlights, admitting women to full membership for the first time. He had his own TV Show Rutland Weekend Television on BBC2 in the seventies, appeared in The Mikado at the English National Opera in the eighties and his song Always Look on the Bright Side went to Number one in the UK in the nineties. He has since been hiding in California with his wife Tania and daughter Lily. He has a son Carey by former wife Lynn Ashley. Spamalot won the Tony Award for Best Musical 2005 and is currently nominated for a Grammy.

John Du Prez (Composer). A Trevelyan Scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, and Associate of the Royal College of Music, du Prez entered the film industry in 1978 composing additional music for Monty Python's Life of Brian. This began a long association with Eric Idle, leading eventually to their current writing partnership. 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 I, II and III. Other Python projects include the Contractual Obligation Album, Monty Python at the Hollywood Bowl and The Fairly Incomplete & Rather Badly Illustrated Monty Python Song Book. He was musical director for Eric Idle's two North American stage tours, Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python (2000) and The Greedy Bastard Tour (2003). Spamalot marked John Du Prez's Broadway debut.

Monty Python's SPAMALOT continues to break Box Office records at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway where it is currently playing. In Spring 2006 Monty Python's SPAMALOT tours to Boston, Chicago and Washington and further dates including major cities in the US and Canada will be announced shortly. A fourth production of Monty Python's SPAMALOT will open at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort in 2007.

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