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  Monty Python Live (mostly) - One Down Five to Go (2014)

  "Monty Python Live (mostly) - One Down Five to Go"
  The O2, London
  10 shows: 1-5 July, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20 July, 2014

  
  

  
  

  Stirred by a losing court case that cost the group a large share of profits from "Spamalot," the five surviving Pythons agreed to appear in a one-night-only reunion stage show at The O2, London, 45 years after the group debuted on television.
  
  At a November 2013 press conference, Eric Idle, the show's director, promised a mix of "comedy, music, and a tiny bit of ancient sex."
  
  When asked about their age, Michael Palin noted, "It's easier to be silly after 70."
  
  After the single show sold out in a record 43.5 seconds, (lots of lovely lira!), more shows were quickly added; a total of 10 dates were booked into the 16,000-seat venue. The final performance, on 20 July, was broadcast live in the U.K. on UKTV Gold and beamed via satellite into cinemas and homes around the world.
  
  On With The Show 
  
  The sketches included: Llamas; Four Yorkshiremen; The Last Supper; Vocational Guidance Counselor; Bruces; Crunchy Frog; The Death of Mary, Queen of Scots/Penguin on the Television; Gumby Flower Arrangement; Camp Judges; Albatross; Nudge Nudge; "Blackmail"; The Spanish Inquisition; Argument Clinic; and Pet Shop/Cheese Shop. There were also a few sketches performed on stage for the first time: Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror; Protestant Couple; and (Miss) Anne Elk.
  
  There were also song-and-dance numbers (choreographed by Arlene Phillips), including an expanded "Penis Song," "Every Sperm Is Sacred," "The Lumberjack Song," The Bruces' Philosophers Song," "I Like Chinese," "Sit on My Face," "Spam Lake," "Nudge Rap," a Silly Walks dance routine, "The Galaxy Song," "I've Got Two Legs," "Spam/Finland," "Christmas In Heaven," and "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."
  
  Among the sketches projected on screen were: The Batley Townswomen's Guild's Reenactment of the Battle of Pearl Harbor; Silly Olympics; Greek-German Philosophers Football Match; and several Gilliam animations.
  
  Also, professors Brian Cox and Stephen Hawking (in a speeding wheelchair) made cameo appearances in a filmed sketch about the physics of "The Galaxy Song."
  
  "Python fans are extraordinarily decent people," John Cleese told Rolling Stone after the reunion engagement, "and they've got a wonderful sense of humor. When the place was filled with 16,000 of them, the atmosphere is so warm. That relaxes the performers. It's like playing a sport: The more relaxed you are, the better your timing is. You get funnier, and then the audience likes it even more. It's an upward spiral."
  
  Of the reunion, which he characterized "a sweet goodbye," Cleese said, "We could say, 'Well, that really was satisfactory.' These things often don't work and this, for some reason, did work. … There was no regret or sadness."
  
  Terry Gilliam told Esquire that the reunion show upset his plans to finally film the oft-delayed "Don Quixote," so the prospect of performing had left him "really pissed off. I went into it with a really bad attitude. But once we got onstage, it was fantastic. It was really good fun. In fact, once we got going in rehearsals I decided I didn't care anymore. I decided, 'Just fuck it. Let's go.' The utter ecstasy of 16,000 people on their feet screaming for everything you're doing. You get so wrapped up in it. …
  "Then two weeks later, it's like it never happened."
  
  
  See Also 
  
  "Monty Python Live (mostly) – One Down Five to Go" – A Blu-ray/DVD release of the recorded final performance.
  
  "Monty Python: The Meaning of Live" – A backstage documentary about how the reunion show was mounted. 

  
  

  
  

  by David Morgan, 2014
  
  

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  Reviews 
  
  "If Python was a cult when it first appeared, it has since achieved the status of established religion for many fans; this first show sold out in 40 seconds, and plenty here are dressed up as favourite characters, calling out the lines of each sketch like a litany. If groundbreaking comedy relies on wrong-footing the audience with unexpected twists and unlikely juxtapositions – precisely as these sketches did when they were fresh – then this must be the opposite. But there's a different kind of enjoyment in the singalong delight of familiarity, and the Pythons serve that up with gusto." – Stephanie Merrirr, The Observer (2014)
  
  "The joyous reprise of skits like Four Yorkshiremen, Nudge Nudge and Spanish Inquisition made you grasp what all the fuss was about." – Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph (2104)
  
  "A blissfully profane mix of their most popular songs and sketches." – Variety (2014)
  
  "Five tuxedo'd old geezers, necks like tortoises, creaked and croaked through a patchy night of their greatest hits. The Monty Pythons were back, courtesy of their vitamin quacks and John Cleese's ex-wife's divorce lawyer." – Quentin Letts, The Daily Mail (2014)
  
  

More live shows from Monty Python

Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1980)

Monty Python Live at Drury Lane! (1974)

Monty Python Live! (1976)

Monty Python's Spamalot (from 2005)