So did thoughts of galloping north, toward the holy grail of American theater, ever cross Rhodes’s mind?
“Not even a little,” said the director, who had less than three weeks of rehearsal time before mounting the 11-show run in May. “It’s a very fast schedule there, so I think what saved me from ever thinking about any of that was just that I had a deadline. I had to get the show up.”
Foretold or not, his Arthurian experience will continue: The Kennedy Center announced Wednesday morning that its production of “Spamalot” will transfer to Broadway’s St. James Theatre, with Finn producing, Rhodes at the helm and casting to be announced. Preview performances start Oct. 31, with opening night Nov. 16.
“It just feels like this is the right moment at the right time for a show that brings such joy and such happiness to audiences,” Finn said Monday. “The end goal was to deliver the very best production of ‘Spamalot’ that we could for the Kennedy Center audiences. This is just the delicious next step of being able to bring it to a much wider audience.”
Featuring a book and lyrics by Eric Idle and music by Idle and John Du Prez, the original Mike Nichols-directed production of “Spamalot” ran on Broadway from 2005 to 2009, grossing more than $175 million and recouping its capitalization in less than six months. Like “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” the 1975 movie it’s based on, the musical follows King Arthur, Sir Lancelot and the Knights of the Round Table on a lampooning quest of meta-humor and medieval misadventures.
“I’m thrilled to see ‘Spamalot’ back on Broadway,” Idle said in a statement. “More than ever, it seems we need a good laugh and it’s inspiring to see audiences still embracing this, the most happy of shows I have ever worked on.”
A presale for the production — which the announcement cheekily called “a limited engagement (probably)” — begins Tuesday, with the general sale commencing the next day.
The transfer is a crowning achievement for the Finn-curated Broadway Center Stage series, which began in 2018 at the Kennedy Center as semi-staged concert performances and has evolved in recent years into more fully produced musicals, including acclaimed runs of “The Music Man,” “Next to Normal” and “Guys and Dolls.” But no Kennedy Center show has made its way to Broadway since 2011, when a production of “Follies” starring Bernadette Peters ran for four months two years after a revival of “Ragtime” followed the same path.
“I’ve always said that if there’s a Broadway Center Stage show that has all of the right elements, and all the ingredients are there to bring it to Broadway and it feels like the right moment, that’s when it will happen,” Finn said. “That’s one of the reasons this experience has been so special.”
The “Spamalot” property, with the critical and financial success of its original run and Tony win for best musical, is something of a safe bet. But the Kennedy Center’s endeavor is still a roll of the dice.
Notably, it must contend with a spate of fall musical premieres, including a “Merrily We Roll Along” revival, with Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe; “Gutenberg!,” with Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad; and “Here We Are,” Stephen Sondheim’s posthumously completed final show. Consistently filling the St. James, one of Broadway’s largest houses, with more than 1,700 seats, also won’t be a sure thing.
“I mean, there’s always pressure,” Rhodes said Tuesday. “It’s a great responsibility for us, because we have the great St. James Theatre. We have to honor that and hopefully deliver something worthy of that space.”
A return of cast members from the Kennedy Center run, which included James Monroe Iglehart as King Arthur, Alex Brightman as Sir Lancelot, Michael Urie as Sir Robin, Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer as the Lady of the Lake and Rob McClure as the Historian/Prince Herbert, would certainly generate buzz. Coyly addressing his to-be-announced actors, Rhodes said: “I love that cast from D.C., and I would be so happy to do the show with them again.”
It’s a road map that paid dividends this past Broadway season, when New York City Center’s brief concert stagings of “Into the Woods” with Sara Bareilles and “Parade” with Ben Platt carried over much of their star-studded ensembles for limited Broadway engagements. Both shows arrived to packed houses and earned myriad Tony nominations, with “Parade” winning for best director and revival of a musical.
For Finn, such success would not only validate “Spamalot’s” transfer but also pave the way for future Broadway Center Stage productions to venture up Interstate 95.
“If this is a success and we’re all very happy, we would look forward to bringing more Kennedy Center productions to Broadway,” Finn said. “That’s certainly a goal of mine.”