From the Department of Terrible Ideas...

This was in my work inbox today. I bet it's as good as Suessical and maybe even better than "The Super Dodgy Donkey Hour."

David Hyde Pierce, Tim Curry and Hank Azaria will head the cast of the eagerly anticipated new musical, Monty Python's SPAMALOT.

Monty Python's SPAMALOT, a new musical lovingly ripped-off from the internationally famous comedy team's most popular motion picture, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, begins previews at Broadway's Shubert Theatre (225 West 44th St.) on February 7, 2005 and opens on March 10, 2005. SPAMALOT will arrive on Broadway following a four-week World Premiere engagement at Chicago's Shubert Theatre (December 21, 2004 - January 16, 2005).

Directed by Mike Nichols, SPAMALOT features a book by Eric Idle, based on the screenplay of Monty Python and the Holy Grail by Monty Python creators Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, with an entirely new score featuring music and lyrics by Eric Idle and John Du Prez, along with three songs from the 1975 film.

Telling the legendary tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and their quest for the Holy Grail, Monty Python's SPAMALOT features a chorus line of dancing divas and knights, flatulent Frenchmen, killer rabbits and one legless knight who create unforgettable musical production numbers that Eric Idle promises will be "as good as or quite likely better than any other show with killer rabbits and a legless knight opening on Broadway or in Chicago this season."

"I like the title SPAMALOT a lot," says Eric Idle. "We tested it with audiences on my recent US tour and they liked it as much as I did, which is gratifying. It comes from a line in the movie which goes: 'I eat jam, and ham and Spam a lot.'"

Directed by Mike Nichols? Hope I die before I get old.