Eric’s Messiah of mirth (From The Northern Echo)

Eric’s Messiah of mirth

11:35am Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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For one night only in cinemas, Eric Idle and John Du Prez’s Not The Messiah is the latest Python project. Steve Pratt reports.

ERIC Idle is doing his best to keep the spirit of Monty Python alive. His musical Spamalot has been a big hit on both sides of the Atlantic and is set to embark on a UK tour taking in Newcastle, Sunderland and York.

And then there’s Not The Messiah (He’s A Very Naughty Boy), which receives a one night only screening in digital cinemas across the UK and Ireland later this month.

This comedic oratorio, written by Idle and John Du Prez (co-creators of Spamalot), was inspired by Monty Python’s The Life Of Brian. It was filmed at its only European performance at the Royal Albert Hall in October last year, an event held to mark 40 years of Monty Python.

This humorous take on Handel’s Messiah, features guest appearances from Idle’s fellow Pythons Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Carol Cleveland and Neil Innes. Soloists include William Ferguson (Brian), Shannon Mercer (Judith), Rosalind Plowright (Mandy) and Christopher Purves (Reg).

Idle says it’s rare to get to be silly on a mass scale. Not The Messiah is very silly indeed – the tragic tale of Mandy, who’s impregnated by a Roman soldier and gives birth to Brian, a reluctant revolutionary who falls in love with Judith, gets mistaken for the Messiah and is condemned to death.

“It ranges in reference,” he says, “from Handel, through a naughty Mozart duet to the festival of Nine Carols, Bob Dylan and the classic Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life, The project began with Idle’s cousin Peter Oundjian, who’s principal conductor for Toronto Symphony Orchestra and came to see him on The Greedy Bastard Tour in 2003.

“We had dinner and he said we should write something, do something together. He kept saying that because no one goes to concerts any more,” he explains.

“Later on, after Spamalot, I suddenly thought how about Not The Messiah? It’s such a perfect idea. If The Messiah comes from the New Testament’s life of JC, then Not The Messiah comes from The Life Of Brian.

“It adapts really nicely. It tells the story. You’ve got the angels and you’ve got the shepherds. So it became in my mind a nine-carol service, an oratorio and orchestral concert all in one, but with narration.”

Call him and Du Prez a modern-day Gilbert & Sullivan and he’ll agree. “I mean, we are in the oddest way. That’s the sort of style we write in – absurdist. It’s lyrical, it’s musical and John is just an extraordinary composer, as Sullivan was. I’m a kind of grumpy old Gilbert, which works perfectly.

“I always liked Gilbert and Sullivan. I spent many years trying to make a movie of The Pirates Of Penzance really early on, and of course I did The Mikado for Jonathan Miller. So I’ve always enjoyed what they did.”

Python has been both a blessing and curse for the regular members because the public has never let them forget it. Idle understands why the performers might resent Python because it seems to dominate them.

“I’ve been fortunate to have had a lot of therapy and that helps you come to terms with it by saying hey, by the way this isn’t a bad thing, this is rather good and you should be proud of it.

“Ringo’s the only real survivor of The Beatles because he had to have therapy because of AA, so he understands. You don’t have to be ashamed of that and go creeping around. That’s part of what you are, of who you are. But it’s not all of who you are and it doesn’t describe who you are in the future. It’s just several paragraphs in an obituary.”

The hardest thing of all with Python was “to survive it”, says Idle. “It’s one of those things that got bigger and bigger. It wouldn’t go away. I hid in France for a whole and that didn’t work. We won the Cannes film festival jury prize.

“I was trying to do movies and writing and comedy, and I realised the thing to do was not to avoid it but to get out there and sing Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life in Chinese (because who else is going to bloody sing it?).

“That gave us some kind of insight on how to deal with Spamalot because we were doing some Python sketches and some stand-up and they loved the Python bits. You can’t even begin a sketch and there’s recognition applause.

“You don’t want to make them your calling card either.

so you need to find the creative way to not get caught in that trap, but use it to lead you into things that interest you.”

■ Not The Messiah is showing for one night only – March 25 – at Odeon MetroCentre, Odeon Harrogate and York City Screen