I'm really excited for the performance boosts that are in store for Python. Having written production services in Python, Go, Java, C++, and Javascript, I can confidently say that I hate Python the least. The only thing keeping me from becoming a full-on evangelist is the comparatively poor performance. Any day now a hero will come along and excise that pesky GIL...
Have you tried Nim ? It makes me think a lot of python on the simplicity/readability side (but unfortunately not for its success)