Comic ditches song from Life Of Brian stage showw

John Cleese has confirmed that he plans to ditch  Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life from a new stage adaptation of Life Of Brian.

The 83-year-old had previously suggested the song would reman, despite wanting to ditch the crucifixion scene which brings the false Messiah's story to an end.

But he told today's Mail on Sunday that the scene was now too ‘predictable’, adding: ‘It was shocking in 1979. It was absolutely astonishing. 

‘People thought it was hilarious, they screamed with laughter.  Well, nobody is going to be shocked now – the joke is 40 years old.’

When news that the show was set to open in London next year first broke, fellow Python Eric Idle tweeted: 'I have nothing at all to do with this production or adaptation. Apparently, Cleese has cut the song. Of course.’

Since Idle wrote Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life, Cleese would have had to pay his former colleague if he wanted to use it in the show.

Today, Cleese said: ‘Eric is very keen to use the song because of course he gets all the royalties from it, and we don’t get any. People do love the song but do we want to end with something that’s completely predictable?’

He also revealed that Michael Palin was 'dubious about the changes that I had made in the second half' - but he was going ahead anyway. 

He reiterated that he would keep the 'Loretta' scene – in which a male member of the People's Front of Judea said he wanted to become a woman - despite criticism that it's transphobic.

Actors in a New York read-through warned him of a potential backlash, but in today's interview, Cleese said: ''The Python fans over the years are not on the whole overlapping with the woke community.'

However,  he revealed he would be scrapping the 'Romans Go Home' sketch, in which a centurion corrects the Latin grammar on Brian's seditious graffiti, because too few schools now teach the language, so it wouldn't resonate with modern audiences.

Cleese also revealed he had changed the beginning of the script to a ‘wonderful opening’ which Pali  wrote 40 years ago but which was never used. 

Published: 25 Jun 2023