NEW CAST FOR MONTY PYTHON’S SPAMALOT

Award-winning TV stars Peter Davison and Bill Ward will join the London cast of Monty Python’s SPAMALOT at the Palace Theatre from 23 July, 2007. Davison, following in the footsteps of Tim Curry and Simon Russell Beale, will play King Arthur, whilst Ward will play the brave (though slightly sexually disorientated) Sir Lancelot. Currently playing to packed houses at the Palace Theatre the award-winning and record-breaking Monty Python’s SPAMALOT is booking until 3 November 2007.

Davison and Ward join a cast including the Olivier Award nominated Hannah Waddingham as The Lady of the Lake, Robert Hands as Sir Robin, Steven Kynman as Herbert, Graham MacDuff as Sir Dennis Galahad, Andrew Spillett as Patsy and Tony Timberlake as Sir Bedevere.

Peter Davison became a household name when he played the fifth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who between 1981 and 1984. His extensive television credits include Tristan Farnon in the long running BBC series All Creatures Great and Small and DC Davies in four series of ITV’s acclaimed The Last Detective. His other TV credits include At Home with the Braithwaites, A Quick Guide to Parenting, Distant Shores, A Very Peculiar Practice, Ain't Misbehaving and Fear Stress and Anger, for which he has just won the 2007 Best Actor Award at the Monte Carlo Television Festival. His theatre credits include Chicago at the Adelphi Theatre, An Absolute Turkey at the Globe Theatre, The Last Yankee for the Young Vic and Arsenic and Old Lace for Chichester Festival Theatre. On film his credits include Parting Shots, Black Beauty and Molly.

Bill Ward is probably best known for playing the psycho misogynist love-rat Charlie Stubbs in Coronation Street until January of this year when his character reached an untimely death. His theatre work includes Oh What a Lovely War for Theatre Clwyd, A Chorus of Disapproval, The Beggar’s Opera and Antigone all at Bristol Old Vic, Destiny, Around the World in Eighty Days and Uncle Ebenezer – A Christmas Carol all for Battersea Arts Centre and Harriot for the Royal Exchange Studio Theatre, as well as numerous shows on the London Fringe. His other TV credits includes Cold Blood, Jonathan Creek, Footballers’ Wives, Fallen, Rose and Maloney, In Deep, The Bill, Holby City, EastEnders, Swag, and Make My Day.

Directed by Mike Nichols, Monty Python’s SPAMALOT is "lovingly ripped-off" from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. 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 serfs), flatulent Frenchmen, killer rabbits and a legless knight.

Book and lyrics are by Eric Idle with a Grammy Award-winning score by Eric Idle and John Du Prez. Other members of the SPAMALOT creative team include Casey Nicholaw (choreography), multiple Olivier Award-winners Tim Hatley (sets and costumes) and Hugh Vanstone (lighting) and Acme Sound Partners.

Monty Python’s SPAMALOT received its first performance at the Palace Theatre in London’s West End on 30 September 2006. Spamalot continues to play at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway having won more Best Musical awards than any other show in 2005. A new production opened at the Las Vegas Wynn earlier this year and 23 November will see the premiere of the Australian production in Melbourne.