Monty Python's Broadway-bound musical Spamalot, which is being billed as “officially ripped-off” from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, will have its world premiere at Chicago's Shubert Theatre from December 21, 2004 through January 16, 2005.

Spamalot 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.

Monty Python rose to popularity through the Flying Circus television series and then went on to make movies. Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a send-up of the Arthurian legend that finds King Arthur on a quest for the Holy Grail, is probably the most popular of the group's films. The musical's name Spamalot is a reference to a line in the film's song “The Song Of The Knights of Camelot,” in which the knights sing: “We dine well here in Camelot, we eat ham and jam and spamalot.”

Mike Nichols is set to direct Spamalot, which will feature sets by Tony Award-winner Tim Hatley. Previously announced choreographer Jerry Mitchell has had to leave the show because of scheduling conflicts. A new choreographer has yet to be named.

As we previously reported, expect Spamalot on the Great White Way in Spring 2005.