Actor John O'Hurley, who is cast as King Arthur, poses with dancers during a news conference on Monday at Wynn Las Vegas for the new show "Monty Python's Spamalot." The Broadway hit is scheduled to open at Wynn on March 8 in the Grail Theater. Photos by John Gurzinski. John O'Hurley, Steve Wynn, Eric Idle and Nikki Crawford sing as they introduce "Monty Python's Spamalot" during a media event at Wynn's hotel-resort. O'Hurley is part of the troupe that is bringing Idle's smash Broadway hit to the Strip.

The competition between "The Producers" and "Monty Python's Spamalot" is already getting silly.

"David Hasselhoff gets a prom dress, and I've got to hop out of a can of processed meat. The theater is alive and well!" John O'Hurley proclaimed Monday, after emerging from said giant can of Spam at a media event to promote "Spamalot," the Broadway hit that opens at Wynn Las Vegas on March 8.

O'Hurley -- known from his stints on "Seinfeld" and "Dancing With the Stars" -- joined the show's creator, Eric Idle, and casino operator Steve Wynn in a half-hour presentation punctuated with one-liners and a whistle-along performance of the show's signature tune, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."

Idle told reporters and casino executives that in the '80s, when "musicals were all about helicopters," he pitched Mel Brooks on a stage adaptation of "The Producers" with he and Brooks playing Max and Leo. Brooks declined, because his focus was on directing films.

"Sometimes I wonder whatever happened to that idea?" Idle mused. The Las Vegas edition of "The Producers" opens at Paris Las Vegas on Jan. 31.

Wynn joked his way into the skepticism toward musicals on the Strip after the demise of "Hairspray," "We Will Rock You" and "Avenue Q," which Wynn introduced in the same theater with similar media ballyhoo in 2005.

Echoing the argument that "maybe the musical theater isn't right for Las Vegas," Wynn said: "Why not face the inevitable. ... We looked for the perfect piece of material to put a final chapter on theater in Las Vegas. This is the end."

Another failure might indeed mark the end of Broadway on the Strip for the rest of the decade. But "Spamalot" has earned $100 million on Broadway and its national tour is setting house records across the country, recouping in less than nine months.

Casting O'Hurley as King Arthur gives the Las Vegas edition an extra celebrity profile. The national tour of "Spamalot" doesn't have famous names.

"I'm lucky enough to have a mainstream type of career," O'Hurley noted after the event, adding that audiences often seek out familiar faces.

Wynn said the closing of "Avenue Q" should not be read as a lack of faith in Las Vegas as "a rich enough and mature enough community in terms of its worldwide appeal to also exploit wit" as well as spectacle.

He said "Q" was operating in the black, but he opted not to build a third theater for "Spamalot."

Wynn also noted that competition from nightclubs was a motivator to hold ticket prices for "Spamalot" to $49 to $99.