Monty Python’s final London performance to air live Sunday

Story highlights

Monty Python's final London concert airing in theaters, on TV

Python concluding run set for Sunday at London's O2 Arena

Show isn't something completely different but a greatest hits for comedy troupe

CNN  — 

Time to pull up the comfy chair.

Monty Python’s three-week London engagement ends Sunday, and for the final show the world will be allowed to watch. The last performance from the O2 Arena will be screened in more than 2,000 movie theaters and on TV screens around the world.

Well, about 100 countries’ worth of the world, anyway. (No word on whether the program will be aired on both peaks of Mount Kilimanjaro.) In the United States, the show can be viewed at selected movie theaters.

Reviews for the show, called “Monty Python Live (Mostly),” have generally been respectful, if not ecstatic.

It’s “a nostalgic celebration of the extraordinary contribution these men have made to modern comedy,” wrote the Observer’s Stephanie Merritt, noting that though the show’s greatest-hits pattern isn’t thrilling, the rapport between the Pythons – Eric Idle, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones – is a joy to watch.

“The chemistry between them still fizzes,” she wrote.

The Telegraph was slightly more upbeat. “The Pythons came, they doddered, but they conquered,” wrote Dominic Cavendish.

The shows haven’t been without their flaws. On opening night, Cleese forgot a line during the famous Dead Parrot sketch.

But the group – all of whom are in their 70s – knew criticism was coming. They made jokes themselves, letting an equally aged Mick Jagger complain about “wrinkly old men trying to relive their youth” in a promotional video shown at a Python press conference.

“The best one died years ago,” Jagger added, referring to Graham Chapman, who died in 1989.

Mick Jagger: Python are ‘wrinkly old men trying to relive their youth’

At the press conference, Palin said that the shows were Python’s way of “saying goodbye publicly” to fans.

Idle added, “Our motto has been ‘leave them wanting less.’ “

The performances have done well though. The first show sold out in 43 seconds.

One must always look on the bright side of life.

If you miss the live Sunday performance, don’t worry: The show will air again later in the week.

See more comedy content at CNN Comedy.

CNN’s Pete Wilkinson contributed to this report.