THE REVOLUTION EVENTUALLY DEVOURS ITS OWN: Terry Gilliam’s Into the Woods cancelled by Old Vic after reports of staff unease.
The show was due to run next spring at the prestigious venue, whose artistic director is Matthew Warchus.
Stephen Sondheim, the writer of Into the Woods, was said to have approved the production because he was impressed with Gilliam’s proposed treatment.
But after the show was announced, it is understood some staff expressed concern about Gilliam’s views on issues such as the Me-too movement, diversity and trans rights.
Gilliam has previously described the MeToo movement as a “witch hunt”, adding there were many “decent people” who were “getting hammered” as the industry grappled with sexual abuse.
Several allegations were made against the Old Vic’s former artistic director Kevin Spacey as part of the MeToo movement, which began in late 2017.
Last year, Gilliam told The Independent he was “tired of white men being blamed for everything wrong with the world”. In the same interview he said: “When I announce that I’m a black lesbian in transition, people take offence at that. Why?”
He also recently defended the comedian Dave Chappelle, whose most recent comedy special included comments deemed by some to be transphobic.
In August, the Daily Wire reported: ‘Woke Generation Is Rewriting Rules On What Can Be Said:’ Legendary Monty Python Actor To Release Series On Cancel Culture.
Hopefully his fellow Python member will join Cleese to discuss his own story.
Related: John Cleese morphed into Theodore Dalrymple so slowly, I hardly even noticed.
Via Jordan Peterson, who tweets, “They cancelled Terry Gilliam, folks. Of Monty Python. The funniest group of people in the English speaking world.”