PRODUCTION PROFILE: Monty Python
MONTY PYTHON
SINCE MONTY PYTHON’S FLYING CIRCUS WAS FIRST BROADCAST ON BBC IN 1969, MONTY PYTHON’S SKETCHES HAVE BECOME WOVEN INTO THE NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS - IF SUCH A THING EXISTS. FROM THE MINISTRY OF SILLY WALKS TO THE DEAD PARROTSSKETCH, MONTY PYTHON’S REVOLUTIONARY HUMOUR IS REVERED BOTH AT HOME AND ABROAD; ITS INFLUENCE CAN STILL BE FELT TO THIS VERY DAY. PERHAPS IT CAME OF LITTLE SURPRISE, THEN, THAT TICKETS FOR THE FIRST NIGHT OF MONTY PYTHON LIVE (MOSTLY) - ONE DOWN FIVE TO GO, SOLD OUT IN A RECORD 43 SECONDS, PROMPTING NINE MORE DATES TO BE ADDED BETWEEN 1 AND 20 JULY. NOT WANTING TO MISS OUT ON THIS LAST HURRAH, TPi’S PATRICK MCCUMISKEY WENT BACKSTAGE AT LONDON’S O2 ARENA TO TALK TO THE CREW RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MAMMOTH PRODUCTION. “Who’d have thought 40 years ago we’d be sitting here doing Monty Python?” asked Eric Idle as The Four Yorkshiremen sketch opened to a rapture of applause and laughter. While the Pythons may have morphed into the ageing millionaires they once mockingly depicted, their unique brand of humour has not lost its appeal throughout the ages - despite some sketches feeling, frankly, quite dated. Such instances, however, were not enough to dampen the enjoyment of seeing Monty Python again on stage. Production Manager Matt Towell guided TPi around the wings of The O2. “The only arena stuff I’ve done before is the Batman Live tour, so it is quite refreshing to be working on an 50
arena show.” Continued Towell: “I normally do musical theatre in the West End, so it’s been a bit of a different approach. Having said that, we’ve got a theatre stage management team working on these shows - the show is, after all, a musical - so I suppose in a sense it’s a continuation of what I am normally used to, albeit in a slightly different form.” Rehearsals took place at LH2 in London in the weeks prior to the premiere. Getting the whole entourage packed up and transported across London, however, was no easy task. Continued Towell: “We needed 24 trucks in total, but because the show was not prepared and built as a tour, physically shifting the set in a very short space of time was a delicate process. Not only did we have to move from
LH2 to The O2, but also we had to shift everything out again for Robbie Williams’ show on 8 July, and then back in for the rest of the dates. If this were a musical in the theatre, you’d have two weeks on stage to do all the technical side of it, but here, we’ve got three days.” I asked Ric Lipson, Set Designer at Stufish Entertainment Architects to elaborate on the challenges of designing the Monty Python Live (mostly) stage design: “From the onset we started to think of the stage as a pop-up theatre book.” Continued Lipson: “The design had two main requirements. The first was to adopt a big look for The O2 audience to be used in the large chorus numbers; while the second requirement was the smaller scale,