Monty Python's Eric Idle Brings Symphonic Silliness to Carnegie Hall in Not the Messiah

Along with accusations of sacrilege, Monty Python's Life of Brian was met with widespread acclaim when it hit the cinemas in 1979.

It was also banned in Ireland and Norway.

Following in the footsteps of Spamalot's screen-to-stage success, lifelong Python Eric Idle has adapted Life of Brian — the story of Brian Cohen's misidentification (and mis-crucifixion) as the Messiah —into an oratorio, aptly titled Not the Messiah. The choral piece has been roaming the world since 2007, traveling from Toronto to Australia to the Hollywood Bowl.

At long last, it touches down in New York City for two performances at Carnegie Hall December 15 and 16, featuring the Collegiate Chorale, along with Broadway favorites Victoria Clark (Cinderella), Lauren Worsham (A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder), and Marc Kudisch (Hand to God). TheaterMania chatted with an ever-casual Idle about this anticipated New York mounting, for which he will be playing what he describes as "all the silly parts."

"I'm pretty up to speed with it," he said, confident with his impending performance. "I've done it seventeen times so hopefully I remember my bits."

What inspired you to write Not the Messiah in the first place?
My cousin Peter Oundjian is the principal conductor of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He always wanted us to do something together and I could never think what it should be because it's hard to fill an evening. We were trying to get young people into the concert hall — that was Peter's intention. If he and I worked on something together, we could get a different audience into the concert hall, and it worked. I don't think they necessarily come back, but they come in for Not the Messiah.

Why did you choose to make Life of Brian your base material?

I got the idea that if The Messiah is based on the Bible, then Not the Messiah should be based on the story of the Life of Brian. Once I [had] the idea, I just wrote a libretto and gave it to John Du Prez and he went off for three months and wrote this fantastic music. It was kind of a fun way of dealing with a lot of the material from the Life of Brian, but doing it in a different way. It's amazing, you do exactly the same material but everybody's wearing white tie and tails and people don't get upset.

It's formally described as an "oratorio," but how classical is the music?
It ranges from Shostakovich, through Mozart, through Gilbert and Sullivan, through swing, through jazz, through Mexican music. John calls it an iPod Shuffle. And of course it’s sung by proper singers with the exception of me, so it can sound really good. The chorus has a lot of fun. It's more fun than most oratorios.

And "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" makes its way into the piece as well. When you first wrote it, did you have any idea that it would become such a sensation?
Well no, it was just a way to end the movie. It was an ironic way to end the movie with them singing something so ridiculously optimistic while being crucified. But now it's turned into an anthem for everybody. It's amazing.

How many sing-alongs for that song do you think you've led over the years?
Well, I did it for the Queen, I did it at prince Charles' birthday, I did it at the Olympics — It crops up. We stuck it in Spamalot in 2005 when we opened that on Broadway. Even though it wasn't from The Holy Grail, it was a very nice opening of Act 2. It's a song that people like and obviously it's in Not the Messiah because it comes from the Life of Brian.

Why did you decide to finally bring it to New York?
It's never been seen in New York so I just thought it would be fun to do it. This is Ted Sperling's first year as artistic director [of the Collegiate Chorale] and he wanted to do something new and fresh. I didn't think I'd be doing it again after 2009, so it's nice to be back after five years and it's always nice to do something new in New York. What's started to happen is other people are doing it, which is nice. It doesn't depend on me being there. It's just something in the repertoire for orchestras and choirs if they want to have a good time.