A Fish Called Wanda: The Musical
When I first heard that Eric Idle was making a musical version of the 'Holy Grail' I was a bit taken aback. How on earth can you make this wonderful epic and incredible funny movie into a musical?? Well, he and John Du Prez did a great job on it. I've watched it twice already and even though I was a bit disappointed at parts, it was still very funny. I enjoyed how they indirectly incorporated various other Python sketches into the show (the Finland song, fish-slapping dance, Dead Parrot and Lumberjack), but thought that overall it was a bit 'americanized' (Camelot/Las Vegas, the Laker girls, Jewish referrences).
Apparently Cleese got a little jealous of Idle's success, and decided to hop on the 'create a musical' bandwagon. His musical will be based on his 1988 movie 'A Fish Called Wanda'. The movie starred Cleese, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin (*sigh*) and Jamie Lee Curtis and even earned Kline an Academy Award for his performance. It's absolutely hysterical! For those who haven't watched it yet...what on earth are you waiting for?? Again however, I'm not sure if it's going to work as a musical. I guess it's easier to take Python material and add a few songs to it, since the sillier it gets the better! But a singing Ken in Wanda?? How is THAT going to work??
I watched an interview with Palin once where he was discussing about how his father - who had a stutter - influenced him to play the role of Ken. He mentioned that even though his father had a hard time speaking, he was a perfectly good singer. Is Cleese going to use this to his advantage in the musical? Ken stutters when he speaks but is able to sing perfectly well? Or is his singing going to be stuttery as well? Because the latter will no doubt offend many people out there. Ken was funny because of his frustration brought on by his stutter. I think his being able to sing may kill the comedy.
Then we have Wanda and Archie. Not hard to write songs for them. Archie's in a dilemma, a couple of love songs, maybe a Lanesque 'Betrayed' song and that's that. But what about Otto?? The psychotic, fish-eating, dimwitted, Nietzsche-loving, ex-CIA killer? He'll have to stop the song every couple of minutes and ask "What was the one in the middle?" He can be really funny too I guess, exactly because of that!
I just hope that the musical does pan out, and doesn't turn out to be a flop. The movie is AMAZING and I'd hate to see it's reputation go down because of a failed musical. Cleese, don't disappoint us!
Read more here.
Apparently Cleese got a little jealous of Idle's success, and decided to hop on the 'create a musical' bandwagon. His musical will be based on his 1988 movie 'A Fish Called Wanda'. The movie starred Cleese, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin (*sigh*) and Jamie Lee Curtis and even earned Kline an Academy Award for his performance. It's absolutely hysterical! For those who haven't watched it yet...what on earth are you waiting for?? Again however, I'm not sure if it's going to work as a musical. I guess it's easier to take Python material and add a few songs to it, since the sillier it gets the better! But a singing Ken in Wanda?? How is THAT going to work??
I watched an interview with Palin once where he was discussing about how his father - who had a stutter - influenced him to play the role of Ken. He mentioned that even though his father had a hard time speaking, he was a perfectly good singer. Is Cleese going to use this to his advantage in the musical? Ken stutters when he speaks but is able to sing perfectly well? Or is his singing going to be stuttery as well? Because the latter will no doubt offend many people out there. Ken was funny because of his frustration brought on by his stutter. I think his being able to sing may kill the comedy.
Then we have Wanda and Archie. Not hard to write songs for them. Archie's in a dilemma, a couple of love songs, maybe a Lanesque 'Betrayed' song and that's that. But what about Otto?? The psychotic, fish-eating, dimwitted, Nietzsche-loving, ex-CIA killer? He'll have to stop the song every couple of minutes and ask "What was the one in the middle?" He can be really funny too I guess, exactly because of that!
I just hope that the musical does pan out, and doesn't turn out to be a flop. The movie is AMAZING and I'd hate to see it's reputation go down because of a failed musical. Cleese, don't disappoint us!
Read more here.