Spamalot was a huge success and a textbook example of taking a very silly film and spinning it into crowd pleasing musical – helped in no small part by the Pythons themselves.
Now John Cleese and his daughter Camilla have adapted the 1988 seafood revenge comedy A Fish Called Wanda into a musical and drafted in the services of Bill Bailey to write the songs.
This is a brilliant move by Cleese, as Bailey may be known to many for his roles in Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz and the comedy series Black Books, he is also an accomplished musician, basing many of his stand up tours around musical themes.
Speaking to Chortle Cleese had this to say on the project,
We’ve just completed the book for the musical of A Fish Called Wanda and I’m pleased that Camilla hasn’t completely stolen all of my dignity in writing so brilliantly. She’s left me a few scraps to hang onto to keep me warm at night.
Soon, we’ll start to work on the songs for the show with Bill Bailey, who, among his many achievements, is an honourary member of the Society of Crematorium Organists. This musical is destined to be a hit amongst funeral directors.
Bailey is currently filming with Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis in the Edinburgh-based bodysnatcher movie Burke and Hare, in which Cleese also has a role, so it’s all a touch incestuous, but considering Bailey’s talent and the fact that Wanda is a comedy which is still as funny as it was two decades ago, this will be great fun.
