Hank Azaria & David Hyde Pierce Join Spamalot
Hank Azaria and David Hyde Pierce will join Tim Curry and Sara Ramirez in the upcoming Broadway musical Spamalot, according to The New York Post's Page Six.
Ken Mandelbaum first reported on June 16 that Azaria and Pierce were offered roles in the tuner. Azaria is best known for his work in Hollywood. He has provided numerous voices for The Simpsons for which he won an Emmy and had featured roles on the television series Herman's Head, If Not for You and Mad About You. In 2002, Azaria headlined his own comedy series on NBC, the short-lived Imagine That. He won an Emmy Award for his performance in the television movie Tuesdays with Morrie. His film credits include Heat, The Birdcage, Grosse Pointe Blank, Great Expectations, Godzilla, Celebrity, Cradle Will Rock, Mystery Men, Mystery, Alaska, American's Sweethearts, Along Came Polly and Dodgeball. He starred in the hit West End production of David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago in 2003.
Pierce is best known for his role in the hit NBC sitcom Frasier, which has earned him three Emmy Awards. He also has a long history in theater. He made his Broadway debut in Beyond Therapy in 1982. Other major theatrical turns include playing Laertes in a New York Shakespeare Festival production of Hamlet, appearing in The Heidi Chronicles on the Great White Way and starring in the world premiere of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks at the Geffen Playhouse.
Spamalot, which is being billed as "officially ripped-off" from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, will feature a book by Eric Idle based on the screenplay he co-wrote with fellow Monty Python creators Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin and music and lyrics by Idle and John Du Prez. The stage show will include three songs from the 1975 Monty Python and the Holy Grail film.
Spamalot will have its world premiere at Chicago's Shubert Theatre from December 21, 2004 through January 16, 2005 in preparation for a spring Broadway berth. Mike Nichols is set to direct the musical, which will feature sets by Tony Award winner Tim Hatley.
