Broadway.com has learned that Sara Ramirez is expected to be one of the principal female performers in Monty Python's upcoming Broadway musical Spamalot, which will have its world premiere at Chicago's Shubert Theatre next winter.

Ramirez made her Broadway debut in 1998 in the Paul Simon musical The Capeman. She has also appeared on the Great White Way in The Gershwins' Fascinating Rhythm and A Class Act and was seen off-Broadway in The Vagina Monologues. Her regional theater credits include Piano, Barrio Babies and The Game. Ramirez can soon be seen at the Williamstown Theatre Festival as one of the core group of performers in Cabaret & Main, which will run from June 24 through July 10 on the Mainstage.

Spamalot, which is being billed as “officially ripped-off” from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, will feature a book by Eric Idle based on the screenplay he co-wrote with fellow Monty Python creators Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin and music and lyrics by Idle and John Du Prez. The stage show will include three songs up from two when the project was announced from the 1975 Monty Python and the Holy Grail film.

Spamalot will have its world premiere at Chicago's Shubert Theatre from December 21, 2004 through January 16, 2005 in preparation for a spring Broadway berth. Mike Nichols is set to direct the musical, which will feature sets by Tony Award winner Tim Hatley.

No casting has been officially announced for the production, but Ken Mandelbaum reported on June 16 that Hank Azaria, Tim Curry and David Hyde Pierce have all been offered roles in the tuner.