Beale Returns to London Spamalot 1/8; McDuff Joins 1/29

From Monday, January 8th 2007, multi-award winning actor Simon Russell Beale will re-create his critically acclaimed Broadway performance as King Arthur in Eric Idle and John Du Prez's sell-out production of Monty Python's Spamalot at the Palace Theatre.  An extra 12 weeks of performances will go on sale today, taking the current booking period up to 22 July 2007.

Beale joins Hannah Waddingham, who received outstanding reviews for her performance as Lady of the Lake, Christopher Sieber as Sir Dennis Galahad, David Birrell as Patsy, Tom Goodman-Hill as Sir Lancelot and Robert Hands as Sir Robin. 

Graham McDuff will succeed Sibert on January 29th.

Directed by Mike Nichols, Monty Python's Spamalot is "'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.  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," as press materials describe the show.

The book and lyrics are by Eric Idle with a Grammy Award-winning score by Eric Idle and John Du Prez.  Other members of the Spamalot creative team include Casey Nicholaw (choreography), multiple Olivier Award-winners Tim Hatley (sets and costumes) and Hugh Vanstone (lighting) and Acme Sound Partners.

Spamalot received its first performance at the Palace Theatre in London's West End on September, 30th 2006.  Spamalot continues to play to sell-out houses in the New York, having won more Best Musical awards than any other show in 2005, and will open at a purpose built theatre at the Wynn Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas in Spring 2007.

Beale, who made his Broadway debut in the 2004 revival of Tom Stoppard's Jumpers (and received a Tony nod for his performance), has won Olivier Awards for his turns in Volpone, Candide and Uncle Vanya. He has appeared on the West End in dozens of plays by Shakespeare, Stoppard, Ibsen, Chekhov and others; they include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Hamlet, Troilus and Cressida, The Man of Mode, Humble Boy, Love's Labour's Lost, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, Edward II, Some Americans Abroad, The Duchess of Malfi, Ghosts and King Lear.