Life Of Brian stage show to launch in 2024
- A stage show version of Monty Python's Life Of Brian will be launched in London in 2024, John Cleese has confirmed
- The new version will feature changes such as no crucifixion scene, and the addition of Pilate's wife, who falls in love with Brian
- John Cleese says: "I think Life Of Brian is our best film. We are going to do it in London in the second half of next year"
It has been revealed that John Cleese and Eric Idle have completed a stage show version of the hit 1979 film Monty Python's Life Of Brian, and it'll launch in London in 2024.
The Daily Mail reports that the stars have been "workshopping new scenes and plotlines for a blockbuster stage show" with director Caroline Jay Ranger.
The new material will include an opening scene written by Palin which never made it into the film, and the newspaper adds: "There is a new character - Fiona Pilate, Pilate's wife - who falls in love with Brian. And, spoiler alert, Brian does not get crucified. But rest assured he will still sing Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life."
Cleese - who is also currently working on a new version of Fawlty Towers - said: "I think Life Of Brian is our best film. We are going to do it in London in the second half of next year and I've changed certain things."
Cleese told an audience at his live show last week that the scene involving People's Front of Judea member Stan saying that he wants to be known as Loretta and to have babies, which is rebuffed by Reg saying "you can't have babies" adding later "I'm not oppressing you, Stan you haven't got a womb. Where's the foetus going to gestate? You gonna keep it in a box?", was performed at a New York readthrough last year, but the actors involved expressed doubts, saying "We love the script, but you can't do that stuff about Loretta nowadays".
Cleese commented: "So here you have something there's never been a complaint about in 40 years, that I've heard of, and now all of a sudden we can't do it because it'll offend people. What is one supposed to make of that? But I think there were a lot of things that were actually, in some strange way, predictive of what was actually going to happen later."
Further details about the stage show are expected to be released in due course.