“Not The Messiah”: Thank God!
This was my kind of holiday outing. Last night, I went to see Carnegie Hall for the joyously blasphemous “Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy),†a comic oratorio based on Monty Python’s 1979 film, “Life of Brian.†A concert that flies off the Handel, the work features a libretto by the Python Eric Idle and music by Mr. Idle’s “Monty Python’s Spamalot†collaborator John Du Prez. It enlisted the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Collegiate Chorale and soloists drawn from, as Mr. Idle said, “the finest talents apparently unemployed on Broadway.†All the soloists, including Victoria Clark, Lauren Worsham, and Marc Kudisch (pictured), were wonderful, and I was especially pleased to make the acquaintance of tenor William Ferguson. His background is opera, but he’s ripe for a leading role on Broadway.
