''Spamalot,' The musical from Monty Python's Eric Idle, isn't due to open at the Wynn until March 8, but when Luxe Life got a sneak preview of the loving rip-off of 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' movie, things turned out so hysterically funny we just had to bring the report to you in four parts.

Today, in part one, we give you the official "meet and greet" preview and then for the remainder of the week we'll present our exclusive interviews with Eric, John O'Hurley, who stars as King Arthur, and Wynn owner Steve Wynn, who is staking the entire future of Broadway theater in Vegas on this merry, out-of-control lunacy! It all began with Eric welcoming us to the adventures of Camelot ...

Eric Idle: If you are here to see Billy Idol, *#@% off. Why are we here in Las Vegas? Well, for the money, and for the launch of Monty Python's 'Spamalot.' And for the money. You must be thinking, 'Eric you are doing all right. Why do you need the money?' Well, I needed to get my daughter through college and my wife through collagen. Last night I missed my wife so much that I paid for a woman to come up to my room and ignore me. We would not be here tonight without the support of a beautiful woman, my pharmacist. My wife's favorite sport is shopping and we have been together for 30 years next week and I now have adopted a male marital position; flat on your back with your wallet wide open."

"So, why 'Spamalot' and why Vegas? Well, about two years ago we were doing 'Spamalot' in NY, that is a big town on the Eastern Seaboard, and one night our producer Bill Haver said, "Steve Wynn is coming tonight. Eric would you meet him and sit next to him?" and I said, "of course." So I met him and he was a very nice man and about five minutes into the show I felt a hand on my knee and a voice whispered in my ear, "This would be great in Las Vegas." I said, "Yes, it would." Then I realized he was referring to the show. He liked the show, he laughed and he sang along and he enjoyed it and at the end he said it reminded him very much of the '60s when he went into Broadway and he had gone to see Nichols and May. Those are my two collective heroes and the reason I went into Python. This musical is of course lovingly ripped off from the movie 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail,' which was made in '75 for about $400,000. On the musical that is less than the lawyers cost, but to come to the stage it needed quite a bit of changing. We did about 17 drafts over four years and the last three I had the assistance of Mike Nichols. I can't say too much about him, because he has very good lawyers."


"Now there is an awful lot of bollocks I am supposed to tell you, about how great, exciting and how it made it's money back after six months on Broadway and how it was the big winner in London and we have a touring company and it is really doing well everywhere, but I am not going to tell you that. Instead I am going to introduce to you to the man who killed 'Seinfeld.' In a career that began more than 25 years ago, he has managed to kill three TV series on his own. He has four soap operas, he has guest starred on more than 50 TV shows; but not one that he is still in. During sweeps in the golden TV rating period he managed to take not one, not two, but three shows off the air in one week including 'Ellen,' and 'Seinfeld.' Please welcome the grim reaper of TV, John O'Hurley who will star as King Arthur.

John O'Hurley: When my wife and I were New York I went to see every other show because I really wanted to see what else was out there. I circled two roles and I said to my wife I have got to do these roles. One was the lead in 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,' which closed before I got a hold of it, and the other was the king in 'Spamalot.' I thought it was an extraordinary show and I thought it was so funny. I had not laughed as hard at a Broadway musical since the first time I saw 'Noises Off' back in the '80s. I described 'Spamalot' as the show that if you laugh too long, you miss the next joke. It just doesn't stop and that is why I wanted to do it. Other stuff in my life? I am a good daddy, I hope. I am on 'Family Feud' and I am doing a show on NBC and a new one that I cannot talk about yet."

Steve Wynn jokingly told us how he landed the wacko musical for Vegas: "I saw the film, I see all of this excitement and I am a little depressed. You heard the story about me being in NY. It is not true. We could have saved the money from the show and gone for stand up. This is not a laughing matter, so try and control yourself. We take theater in Vegas very seriously, as well we should. We had planned as we were remodeling the theater, for something that would be here for awhile and make a real contribution to the future of theater in this great city, we were going for 'Richard III,' but that was taken and so were all the other good plays and so we ended up with this."


"That is not the worst of it, when we made the deal, I had to adjust. My spirits were void by 'gee, this is my big chance to play Arthur' and then Mike Nichols said he wanted a younger man. I even played the locals card but they had Carol and Julie and they said they needed a name and so I didn't get that either. But, I saw an article the other day that compared John and David Hasselhoff. David is there with a bathing suit and John was not. We are taking theater very seriously and although important members of the local press are here today, and I am glad you could make it. You have written and paid careful attention to the fact that maybe Las Vegas is not the place for comedy and musical theater. The people come here from the Midwest and around the world and they want spectacle. They want big exciting things and maybe the musical theater isn't right for Vegas. Over a period of years we have learned from the press and so we said why not face the inevitable and let's end it. So we looked for the perfect piece of material to put a final chapter of theater into Las Vegas.

Eric interrupted: Thank you Steve. Unfortunately, this is the end of my show too because I have been hired for a wedding.

I asked Steve how committed he was to the 'Spamalot' production since he had axed his previous 'Avenue Q' musical after promising a long run. He said he was glad I'd given him the opportunity to clarify it.

Steve Wynn: As brutal as it may be, there is a reality to these hotels in Vegas. There is a certain amount of space and there are certain things you can do. We had made a place for 'Spamalot' as a third theater in the building, just across from the Terrace Point Cafe, just before you get to the country club and that would put the theater in our convention and meeting space. There's a bunch of new convention space on the Encore side, at the time my colleagues were concerned about that. They wanted the convention space to be contiguous. We looked at the financial performance of 'Avenue Q,' one of my favorite shows. I saw it 11 times. We said well if we could do 'Spamalot' in the Grail Theater where 'Avenue Q' was, we would be able to preserve that convention and meeting space. This became very important to the sales here and all of a sudden we had competing interest for the ground. I must confess that I am ashamed of myself that I did it because of the money and the planning; the decision was taken to abbreviate the stay of Q. We built the second theater because we want people in Vegas to have a choice. Let's face it success in life brings us one thing, choice. The more successful you are the more you get to decide where you want to live, who you want to hang out with, the secret of Vegas is choice. We built a second theater and said by hook or crook we are going to offer people a choice, 'Le Reve,' a big, stunning, expensive extravaganza and we want to bring to this city something that hasn't really been done before. We believe that Vegas is a rich and mature enough community to also exploit wit and this theater was built to be that place in this city where humor and wit prevail. I said to Eric the night I went to the show and I sat between he and his wife that this is the easiest entertainment decision I have made in 40 years. Las Vegas would understand it and they would love it. That is how we got started. We are committed to the show for as long as the public likes it."

Luxe Life will return tomorrow with part two of our 'Spamalot' salute as we get up close for something completely different with Eric Idle.

Related Pop-ular Stories:
- Luxe Life: Part I: Eric Idle, John O'Hurley and Steve Wynn Answer 'Why Vegas?'
- Luxe Life: Part II: Eric 'American' Idle On Why Monty Python is Popular in the U.S.
- Luxe Life: Part III: Steve Wynn On the State of Vegas
- Luxe Life: Part IV: John O'Hurley Goes From the Grim Reaper to King Arthur