X Factor may be over, Gethin may be out of Strictly, but reality television fans can continue to get their fix via the newly relaunched website for Monty Python’s Spamalot, www.pythonline.com. The website is to broadcast an English-language version of each episode of West End Star, a Swedish reality contest aiming to cast the next Lady of the Lake in the hit West End musical.
The first programme, shown on 15 December on Swedish channel TV3, saw the judges whittle down the hundreds of hopefuls to 10 finalists – among them a checkout girl, a cruise ship entertainer and a show jumper – who will proceed to a series of live studio shows to battle it out for the role. In a format similar to British reality shows How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? and Any Dream Will Do, one aspiring Lady will be voted off each week. The final four will be flown to London to begin rehearsals with the cast of Monty Python’s Spamalot, returning each week to Sweden to face the judges until the winner is chosen on 2 February.
Monty Python’s Spamalot, written by original Python Eric Idle and long-time collaborator John Du Prez, is based on the film Monty Python And The Holy Grail and opened in the West End in October 2006. It currently stars Peter Davison as King Arthur, Bill Ward as Sir Lancelot and Hannah Waddingham as the Lady of the Lake. Waddingham leaves the show in January to take over the role in the Broadway production, with New York Lady Marin Mazzie coming to London for a short season. Mazzie hands over to the new Swedish Lady on 11 February. CB