Python-ite Creates Killer Machines for Stage

Posted on Jan 24th 2008 6:00PM by James Sullivan
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At some point in the not-so-distant future, the machines are surely going to catch up with us, intelligence-wise. Most of us figure that kind of ominous progress will come with advances in computer technology and robotics. Monty Python's Terry Jones sees something maybe scarier still: vacuum cleaners and parking meters that sing opera as they stage an uprising.

That's the kooky premise of 'Evil Machines,' the surreal comic's new musical, which has been earning raves in its inaugural run in Lisbon, Portugal (apparently a hotbed of Python worship). Jones, the Python member best known for dressing in drag to play cockney Edith Bunker types, is directing the show and hopes to bring it to London and New York.

"I didn't know how they were going to do all these tumble dryers and parking meters and motorbikes singing onstage, but I thought, well, that's their problem," he told the UK's Guardian newspaper. "Then they asked me to direct it – so it became my problem."

Given the success of 'Spamalot' -- not to mention 'The Brave Little Toaster' – there's a readymade audience for this latest bit of inspired madness from the mind of Python. For the opera averse, we can hear the "music inspired by" soundtrack taking shape already – the Jackson 5's 'Dancing Machine,' Sonic Youth's 'Washing Machine,' the MC5's 'Human Being Lawn Mower,' the complete works of Tool...

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