Jerry Springer: The Opera
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Jerry Springer: The Opera is a British musical written by Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas, based on the television show The Jerry Springer Show. The show is notable for its profanity, its unusual depiction of Judeo-Christian themes, and surreal images such as a troupe of tap-dancing Ku Klux Klan members. The musical is completely sung throughout, with the exceptions of Jerry, who speaks, and a brief speech by Steve.
The musical ran for 609 performances in London from April 2003 to February 2005 before touring the UK in 2006. American productions are scheduled for 2007.
The musical was the subject of controversy beginning in January 2005, when its UK television broadcast on BBC Two was the subject of 55,000 complaints.[1] The organisation Christian Voice led street protests against the screening at nine BBC offices[2] and announced their intention to bring blasphemy charges, due to the depictions of the Judeo-Christian characters in Act II. The Christian Institute levelled charges against the BBC,[3] but these were rejected by the High Court of Justice.[4] Protests continued at tour venues in 2006 and on the internet.
Contents |
[edit] Principal roles
- Jerry — The infamous talk show host.
- Chucky/Adam — Shawntel's redneck husband, who does not approve of her career desires.
- Dwight/God — Dwight is cheating on his fiancee with two other people.
- Montel/Jesus — Montel enjoys dressing as a baby and fouling in his own underwear.
- Peaches/Baby Jane — Peaches is Dwight's fiancee. Baby Jane is an adult baby.
- Andrea/Archangel Michael — Andrea is Montel’s lover.
- Shawntel/Eve — Shawntel dreams of becoming an exotic dancer, but her husband disapproves.
- Steve Wilcose — Head of Security as the Jerry Springer Show.
- Tremont/Angel Gabriel — A male to female pre-op transexual, having an affair with Dwight.
- Jonathan Weiruss/Satan — Weiruss is the warm-up guy who Jerry fires for incomptence.
- Zandra/Irene/Mary — Zandra is Peaches best friend, and having an affair with Dwight. Irene is Shawntel’s ashamed mother.
[edit] Musical numbers
Act I
- 1. Overtly-ture
- 2. Audience Very Plainsong
- 3. Ladies & Gentlemen
- 4. Have Yourselves A Good Time
- 5. Bigger Than Oprah Winfrey
- 6. Foursome Guests
- 7. I've Been Seeing Someone Else
- 8. Chick With A Dick
- 9. Talk To The Hand
- 10. Adverts 1
- 11. Intro To Diaper Man
- 12. Diaper Man
- 13. Montel Cums Dirty
- 14. This Is My Jerry Springer Moment
- 15. Mama Gimmee Smack On The Asshole
- 16. I Wanna Sing Something Beautiful
- 17. Adverts II
- 18. First Time I Saw Jerry
- 19. Backstage Scene
- 20. Poledancer
- 21. I Just Wanna Dance
- 22. It Has No Name
- 23. Some Are Descended From Angels
- 24. Jerrycam
- 25. Klan Entrance/End Of Act One
Act II
- 26. Gloomy Nurses
- 27. Purgatory Dawning
- 28. Eat Excrete
- 29. Haunting
- 30. Him Am The Devil
- 31. Every Last Mother Fucker Should Go Down
- 32. Grilled & Roasted
- 33. Transition Music
- 34. Once In Happy Realms Of Light
- 35. Fuck You Talk
- 36. Satan & Jesus Spat
- 37. Adam & Eve & Mary
- 38. Where Were You?
- 39. Behold God
- 40. Marriage Of Heaven & Hell
- 41. This Is My Cheesey
- 42. Jerry It Is Finished
- 43. Jerry Eleison
- 44. Please Don't Die
- 45. Take Care
- 46. Martin's Richard-Esque Finale De Grand Fromage
- 47. Play Out
[edit] Plot
[edit] Act I: Earth
An anonymous mob assembles and reveals its hopes, dreams and secrets, and its love of the American TV talk show host, Jerry Springer. After a brief squabble the crowd dissipates into a TV studio where Jerry Springer's Warm-Up Man, Jonathan Wierus, works them into a frenzy of expectation, culminating in the arrival of Jerry himself. Monitors descend and explain that The Jerry Springer Show may not be suitable for children.
Jerry introduces his first guest, Dwight. Dwight is cheating on Peaches, who reveals she once enjoyed a moment of tenderness during a sexual encounter in a toilet. Zandra, whom Dwight is also sleeping with, has drug problems and a nostalgic view of the past. The three argue and fight, and Steve, the senior of Jerry's three security men, breaks them up. A Valkyrie appears in Jerry's subconscious mind and admonishes him. Dwight is cheating on both Peaches and Zandra with a transexual, Tremont, who arrives to tell his story, egged on by the Warm-Up Man. Finally, Peaches wishes death and destruction on all three. A commercial break follows.
The over-zealous Warm-Up Man causes Jerry to fumble the introduction of the next guest, Montel, who is here to tell his partner, Andrea that he enjoys dressing as a baby and fouling in his own underwear. Jerry's inner-Valkyrie tries to stop his confession but it goes ahead anyway. Unburdened, Montel tells Andrea he is also seeing Baby Jane, a woman who likes to dress as a little girl. Baby Jane has a Jerry Springer moment of her own. The Warm-Up Man returns to contribute to the general humiliation of Andrea who is eventually left alone to lament her situation. A second commercial break follows.
Backstage, the Warm Up Man explains his relationship with Jerry and is then fired for his unprofessional behaviour and expelled from the building by Steve, though not before Jerry has once again wrestled with his Valkyrie.
Jerry introduces his final guests, Shawntel who wants to be a pole dancer, and her disapproving redneck husband, Chucky. Shawntel is persuaded to dance and then her mother, Irene arrives. She alludes to a miserable incident in her past and then attacks her daughter. Chucky says he is the innocent one in the story, but Jerry calls on secret JerryCam camera footage which reveals him to be a patron of strip clubs and a member of race hate organisation, the Ku Klux Klan.
Amidst general brawling, Jerry welcomes the Klan to the stage. During the ensuing struggle, Montel is given a gun by the Warm Up Man which he aims at the Klan. The Warm-Up Man jostles him and he accidentally shoots Jerry, who collapses into the arms of his faithful servant, Steve.
[edit] Act II: Purgatory
Jerry awakes, wounded and in a wheelchair. He is in a fog enshrouded wilderness, surrounded by nurses and accompanied by Steve. He is made to inspect a bedpan and then introduced to shadowy incarnations of his former guests, all of whom have suffered unpleasant fates. Baby Jane returns too, with a household tool stuck in her skull. Jerry attempts to justify himself to the dead guests. Baby Jane warns him of impending doom. The Warm-Up Man and two of the security team make a grand entrance and reveal themselves as Satan and his servants. Satan extols the virtues of falling from grace. Baby Jane pleads unsuccessfully for Jerry's soul. Satan tells Jerry he wants him to go to Hell to do a special show for him. He shows Jerry the severed head of his manager, and explains that if he refuses to help him, he will be sexually assaulted with serrated fencing material. Jerry acquiesces and he and Steve descend to Hell.
[edit] Act III: Hell
Baby Jane announces the arrival of Jerry and Steve in Hell, which is a smouldering and charred recreation of their own TV studio, with burned-out chairs and an audience imprisoned in cracks in its walls. Monitors descend and explain that The Jerry Springer Show in Hell may not be suitable for those without a strong grasp of Judeo-Christian mythology. Baby Jane gives Jerry cue cards which introduce Satan, who is clearly running the show as something of a kangaroo court. He wants an apology for his expulsion from Heaven and forces Jerry to work only within the boundaries of the cue cards he has been given. Jerry is made to introduce the next guest, Jesus, who bears striking similarities to the diaper fetishist Montel. Jesus and Satan indulge in a battle of wits. Satan's next witnesses are Adam and Eve, who resemble Chucky and Shawntel. They take Jesus to task, with Eve eventually physically attacking him. Jesus' mother, Mary, who reminds us of Irene, is called and she leads a general condemnation of Jesus. The frustrated audience and guests eventually turn on Jerry himself, who says he will not be able to solve their dispute without a miracle.
God, archangels Gabriel and Michael and a host of lesser angels arrive. God asks Jerry for help judging mankind. Jerry accepts his offer to reign alongside him in Heaven and the two opposing sides fight over Jerry, the devils eventually restraining him in a gibbet, swinging high over a pit of flame.
Jerry pleads for his life with a series of glib homilies, but eventually abandons hope and in doing so makes an honest statement which resounds with his audience. Heaven and Hell put aside their differences and join in a hymn of praise to all life.
Everyone disperses and Jerry is lowered into the ground where he meets Steve and Baby Jane, who tells him he must, against his will, now return to Earth. There, Jerry awakes in his studio, dying in Steve's arms. He makes a final speech and his audience and guests are joined in sorrow.
A sumptuous closing number of 33 dancing Springers then makes the show's opaque doctrine of moral relativism more acceptable to theatre audiences.
[edit] History
[edit] Battersea Arts Centre and the Edinburgh Festival
Richard Thomas's first opera, Tourette's Diva, was performed at London's Battersea Arts Centre in May 2000 and featured two members of a dysfunctional family singing obscenities to each other. This led Thomas to create his one-man show How to Write an Opera About Jerry Springer, which was performed at the Centre in February 2001.
In May 2001, Thomas returned to the Battersea Arts Centre with his show How to Write an Opera About Jerry Springer, accompanied by four singers in a tiny studio theatre. It attracted positive press and investment. Stewart Lee teamed up with Thomas, and the two began to write Jerry Springer: The Opera. The show received its first performance, while still under development, at the Centre in August 2001, with a cast of twelve. It ran for a week, selling out. When the show returned to the Centre in February 2002, the three-week run sold out in advance.
The show was then performed in concert at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2002. It was a critical and popular success, selling to packed houses in the 750-seat Assembly Rooms. Jerry Springer came to see the show and endorsed it, stating, "I wish I'd thought of it myself."[5] The Edinburgh run included the introduction of character of Tremont — an amalgamation of two previous characters. Australian born Actor Andrew Bevis created the new role, establishing the character as a favourite.
Following the Festival run, Nicholas Hytner offered to include the show in his opening season as director of the National Theatre in London.
[edit] National Theatre and Cambridge Theatre
The first fully-staged production of the opera was performed at the National Theatre on April 29, 2003, with a cast of 33, including Bevis as Tremont and Michael Brandon as Jerry. It was a major success, playing to packed audiences, and receiving extremely favourable reviews. All the tickets for the first run of performances were sold a week before the first performance. The show had its final performance at the National Theatre on September 30, 2003, before moving to the West End.
On November 10, 2003, the show opened at the Cambridge Theatre, with the same cast as the National Theatre production, and ran there until February 19, 2005, before starting a tour of the United Kingdom. The West End run was sponsored by British Sky Broadcasting, slashing ticket prices with a London-wide poster campaign. The option of first television broadcast was not exercised as part of this sponsorship deal. On July 12, 2004, David Soul took over the role of Jerry from Michael Brandon.
[edit] Initial Broadway Production Announced/Cancelled
In 2004, the show's producers announced that it would be moving to Broadway in New York City, in 2005,[6] following a short run in San Francisco in the Spring[7]. The move was cancelled, reportedly following the failure to attract the necessary backing. Harvey Keitel and Kevin Kline were approached to play the lead role, and David Bedella (Warm-Up Man/Satan) was under contract to resume his role on Broadway. Rumours then appeared that the show would be playing Broadway after the 2006 UK tour, but these rumours disappeared with the announcement of the Chicago production in Spring 2007.
[edit] 2006 UK Tour
In September 2005, seven months after the show closed in London's West End, it was announced that the show would be going on a tour of 21 regional theatres around the United Kingdom. Nine theatres originally scheduled to host the show pulled out after Christian Voice threatened to picket them. It was claimed that a further setback to the tour was the decision of Arts Council England to turn down a bid for funding; the Arts Council released a statement that the decision was based on the show's commercial pedigree rather than "pressure from extremist groups"[8].
The tour ran for 22 weeks, starting at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth on January 27, 2006. Immediately prior to the show's opening in Plymouth, it was reported that members of the far-right British National Party were part in a local campaign against the performances[9], although the pressure group Christian Voice claimed to disapprove of their involvement. According to Ticketmaster UK, ticket sales were consistently very good for theatres countrywide throughout the run. Reviews were very positive throughout the tour.[citation needed]
The cast for the tour included several cast members from the final London cast, including Carrie Ellis, Benjamin Lake, and Annabelle Williams and also some returning from the original London cast, including Valda Aviks and Wills Morgan. American actor Rolf Saxon replaced David Soul as Jerry Springer. The tour had a scaled down set and scaled down effects as well as a smaller on-stage "audience".
In the tour version, the character Tremont was reworked and is now less feisty and more holier-than-thou, with a completely new outfit, new personality, and has moved towards a drag queen look as opposed to a more traditional transvestite look, such as stronger theatrical make up, a big wig, glitter, and sparkly rings. Also in the tour version, the song "It Ain't Easy Being Me" was extended to include another 2 verses.
[edit] Protests and Controversy
Reviewers saw the Christian protests as misplaced, concluding that the show is "an audacious and scandalous, yet ultimately moral and challenging show that's recommended to anyone who can accept the odd dose of outrage in their lives."[10] and recommending, "don’t get your knickers in such a twist, drop ‘em and enjoy yourself."[11]
In addition to the protests at the BBC facilities, several venues throughout the 2006 tour saw protests:[citation needed]
- In Plymouth, at the preview night at the Theatre Royal, a group of about 40 Christian Voice supporters turned out to sing hymns and hand out leaflets to the audience as they entered the theatre.
- In Birmingham, performances attracted a few protesters, and more commotion was made by audience members arguing when being presented with leaflets.
- In York, leaflets were handed out by small numbers of Salvation Army and Christian Voice protesters.
- In Manchester, 10 protestors appeared on the opening night, but these were outnumbered by an anti-protest of people holding up signs for freedom of speech. Subsequent nights saw a single regular protestor, or none.
- In Oxford, several elderly Christian protesters turned out.
- In Cambridge, a handful of protesters handed out leaflets on opening night. Protestors were particularly present on Good Friday, the events of which are referenced in Act II of the show.
- In Edinburgh, one man from Christian Voice handed out leaflets on a few of the nights.
- In Glasgow, a group of Christian protestors stood outside the theater singing Hymns and handing out leaflets.
- In Bristol, about 100 protesters appeared on opening night, particularly mothers with young children. Many came from the Carmel Evangelical Church in Brislington. Their leaflets stated that the Bristol Old Vic had edited a "classic production" to avoid offending Muslims but did not specify which production. All the protesters had left by the interval.
- In Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, over 300 protestors appeared on opening night.
- In Brighton, two protestors arrived at several of the performances. After the Saturday matinee, Christian Voice protestors appeared.
The opposition by Christian Voice caused the cancer charity Maggie's Centres to reject a £10,000 donation from Jerry Springer: The Opera. Christian Voice said it had warned the charity that accepting cash from a show full of "filth and blasphemy" would be a public relations disaster. In response, David Soul, playing Jerry in London at the time, accused the religious group of "strong-arm tactics" and blackmail—adding that cancer is not just a Christian problem. Leon Craig (Montel at the time) added, "They've no right to pressure a charity to refuse a donation", and Alison Jiear (Shawntel at the time) said, "Just because they don't like the show doesn't mean they should let cancer sufferers continue to suffer without what could be a considerable help. They aren't Christian!"[citation needed]
[edit] Forthcoming Chicago and Memphis Productions
The show will have its American premiere in a non-equity production in Chicago at the Bailiwick Repertory Theatre scheduled to begin on May 3, 2007, toward a May 14 opening. Performances are schduled to continue until July 8. Bailiwick founder and artistic director David Zak (a seven-time Jeff Citations winner) will direct.
Though Chicago will be the first to mount the show, Playhouse On the Square in Memphis, Tennessee was the first to receive a nonexclusive license, and the show is scheduled to run there from August 10th to September 9th, 2007. While casting in Memphis and New York, it will be directed by local, Bob Heatherington, chair of the University of Memphis Theatre Department and two time recipient of the Tyrone Guthrie Award. In the past year, he has directed numerous shows, including Urinetown:The Musical; Blue/Orange; Parade; and Inherit the Wind. He is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SSDC), and the national directors' union.
[edit] Awards
The show won four awards at the 2004 Laurence Olivier Awards–Best New Musical, Best Sound Design, Best Actor In A Musical (David Bedella) and Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical (the Chorus)[12]. It also won Best Musical at the 2003 Critics' Circle Awards[13], Best Musical at the 2003 Evening Standard Awards[14] and the 2004 Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers' Choice Awards Best New Musical and London Newcomer of the Year (Benjamin Lake)[15]. The show won four awards at the 2004 Nowt2Do.Com awards, Best actor in a musical (David Bedella) Best Actress in a musical (Alison Jiear) Best London Show, and Most Entertaining Show[16]. In 2006, the show won Best Touring Production at the Theatrical Management Association Awards.[17]
It is the only show ever to win all four "Best Musical" awards.
[edit] Television
Jerry Springer: The Opera was the subject of controversy when the British Broadcasting Corporation televised the opera on January 8, 2005 as part of an evening of Jerry Springer-themed programming on BBC TWO. News of the screening had prompted TV standards campaigners Mediawatch to write a letter to the BBC Chairman of the BBC Governors, Michael Grade, asking him to reconsider the decision to show the opera[18].
On January 7, 2005, the day before the broadcast, the BBC announced that it had received over 47,000 complaints about its plans to screen the opera – the most complaints ever received about a British television broadcast[19]. Many commentators, including the BBC, attributed such a high volume of complaints to an orchestrated campaign by various Christian groups. Supporters of the BBC's broadcasting of the show pointed out that the supposedly blasphemous content was clearly presented as a fantasy in the mind of the dying central character and was not intended to be a serious comment on Christ or Christian theology. John Beyer, chairman of Mediawatch-UK, argued that the BBC should shoulder much of the blame for the campaign against the opera since they had promoted the opera as "pushing back the boundaries of taste" and "controversial" when it had never been intended to offend the groups who campaigned against it.
In November 2005, a DVD of the show was made available in the UK. However, because of complaints by customers, Sainsbury's and Woolworths decided to stop selling the DVD. Many blogs and Liberal Democrat MP, Lynne Featherstone[20] condemned the action from the stores as being corporate censorship, something which both retailers deny. Most other retailers continue to stock the DVD[21].
On the DVD's commentary, it was stated that it would not be possible to tour the show in the UK due to pressure from religious groups, but since the release of the DVD, the UK Tour 2006 went forward. The DVD commentary also stated that Stewart Lee was unhappy with an unscripted action by Alison Jiear. In the "Adam and Eve and Mary" scene in Act II, Jiear runs her hand under Jesus's loincloth, prompting a surprised look from Leon Craig, the actor playing Jesus. Lee said, on the commentary, "I wish she hadn't done that", implying that he felt the action took away from the style of serious characterisation over funny actions and lines and because of the possibility of antagonising the Christian Voice protestors.
[edit] Profanity
The opera is noted for its profanity. It has been accused of including "8,000 obscenities"[22]—it is not known where this count originated, but the 8000 figure is popularly quoted[23][24]. Several publications, including the Daily Mail and The Sun, claimed a figure of "3,168 mentions of the f-word and 297 of the c-word". As stated in the BBC's findings, however, "the reported figure was in fact a vast exaggeration. In reality, there were 96 uses of the f-word and nine uses of the c-word. While a substantial number, this was not necessarily unacceptable in terms of late night terrestrial television."[25]
The numbers of 3,168 and 297 can be calculated by multiplying the number of occurrences, 96 and 9 respectively, by the number of people in the choir, 33.
According to director Stewart Lee, there are 174 swear words in all[26].
[edit] Notes
- ^ Simon Freeman. "BBC 'right' to screen Jerry Springer musical", The Times, 2005-03-30. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ "Protest held over Springer show", BBC NEWS, 2005-01-09. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ "Legal threat over Springer opera", BBC NEWS, 2005-06-03. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ "Springer Opera legal bid rejected", BBC NEWS, 2005-06-16. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ The Observer, 2005
- ^ Playbill article on the proposed Broadway production
- ^ "Springer opera set for Broadway", BBC NEWS, 2004-04-27. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ "Arts Council England takes a tough stand on attacks against freedom of artistic expression", Arts Council England, 2005-08-19. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ "Springer tour faces new protests", BBC NEWS, 2006-01-26. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ Manchester Evening News review
- ^ Reviews Gate.com
- ^ Laurence Olivier Awards: Past Winners. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ Critics' Circle Theatre Awards for 2001-04. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ "Springer opera wins theatre prize", BBC NEWS, 2003-11-24. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ Whatsonstage.com Theatregoer's Choice Awards 2004. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ Nowt2Do.Com Awards. Retrieved on May 24, 2006.
- ^ TMA Awards by Whatsonstage.com.
- ^ "BBC urged to reconsider Jerry Springer The Opera", Mediawatch, 2005-01-04. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ "Protests as BBC screens Springer", BBC NEWS, 2005-01-10. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ Jerry Springer: The Opera DVD (2005-12-06). Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ Alan Connor. "Merry Hell", BBC NEWS, 2005-12-08. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ "Protests as BBC screens Springer", BBC NEWS, 2005-01-10. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ "BBC braced for Springer opera storm", Edinburgh Evening News, 2005-01-08. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ "The Sun Says: Obscene TV", The Sun. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ Finding by the Governors' Programme Complaints Committee: Jerry Springer - the Opera, BBC Two, Saturday 8 January 2005 (March 2005). Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
- ^ Stewart Lee. "Christian Voice is outside, praying for our souls ...", The Guardian, 2006-02-15. Retrieved on May 22, 2006.
[edit] References
- Information about the show
- The Observer report on the BBC broadcast and the protests
- FAQs on the show
- 2006 review of the show in Manchester
- 2007 review from Reviews Gate.com
