Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Great Fun ! |
| Disadvantages: |
Not for the Easily shocked ! ! |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Jerry Springer – The Opera! Winner of Best Musical Award, by The evening Standard 2003.
What is Jerry Springer?
It is a tacky, trashy American chat show hosted by the one and only Jerry Springer. The Jerry Springer show was first aired on September 30th 1990, it is now a popular TV show shown in over 190 US Markets and is a hit in over 40 foreign countries.
The show gives the public a chance to come onto live TV and confront their partners, family members or friends. Stories vary from “My Mum is my Dad” to “I Slept with my brothers, sister’s gay boyfriend”.
You can also participate in other ways by becoming part of the live studio audience, you get to cheer for Jerry, “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry”, and also contribute with comments on the confessions you have just heard from the guests. You are there to boo and cheer and make your own assumptions and conclusions.
What is Opera?
A drama, either tragic or comic, of which music forms an essential part; a drama wholly or mostly sung, consisting of recitative, arials, choruses, duets, trios, etc., with orchestral accompaniment, preludes, and interludes, together with appropriate costumes, scenery, and action; a lyric drama.
Jerry Springer – The Opera:
“It’s got tragedy, it’s got violence, it’s got people screaming at each other and you can’t understand what they are saying, it’s the perfect Opera”
[Richard Thomas: Composer/Book/Music/lyrics]
Jerry Springer – The opera is a mixture of high art (Opera) and low art (Trashy TV Talk Show) it has created a ground breaking new opera.
“God Lord, I thought. I’ve got culture. I’m an opera, who would have thought it?”
[Jerry Springer]
How it all began:
It all started in 2001 at the Battersea Arts Centre in a series called “Scratch Nights”, with Richard Thomas (Music) putting in his own money.
It was then developed through numerous workshops, which were seen by Nicholas Hytner, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cameron Mackintosh and various Broadway producers. From this it went on to be performed in concert at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2002.
Richard Thomas (Music/Book/lyrics) and Stewart Lee (Book/Lyrics) decided to turn down offers off West end and Broadway productions and decided to develop the completion of the Opera at The National Theatre.
After a successful run at The National Theatre in 2003, Jerry Springer – The Opera makes it’s West End debut at The Cambridge Theatre,
London.
About the show:
This show is not for the prude among us, if you are easily shocked then this possible isn’t the show for you. However if the thought of seeing a large black Jesus dressed in a loin cloth singing “In fact I am a little bit gay” amuses you then this is the show for you.
ACT 1:
Act one is set up very much as The Jerry Springer Show on TV, the audience are seated at the side of the stage and ready to see the only and only “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry”.
Jerry Springer played by Michael Brandon, and he portrays Jerry in great detail, he has got all the mannerisms down.
The guests of course are all back stage waiting for their “Jerry Springer Moment” their 15 minuets of fame. One by one they are brought out tell their story. We have Dwight, the fat bloke cheating on his fiancée with her best friend and a ‘Chick with a Dick’. Next we have Montel a huge guy who strips off to his nappies and ‘I Just Wanna Shit My Pants’. Also we have a lap Dancer who sings the stunning song ‘I Just Wanna Dance’ and her Red Necked husband, and a chorus Line of Klu Klux Klansmen.
At the end of Act 1 Jerry Springer gets shot when things get out of hand.
ACT 2:
Jerry has been shot and descends to Hell and presides over a show down between Christ and Satan. God also makes an appearance singing a humorous song entitled “It aint easy being me”. All the guests in act 1 take on the different role in act 2, which adds to the humour. The second act is not as well developed as the first although still very amusing and entertaining. The best performance in the second act is by David Bedella, jerry’s warm up man in act 1, who now appears as Satan and gives a superb performance.
Cast List principals in order of appearance:
Steve: Guy Porritt
Warm- Up Man: David Bedella
Jerry: Michael Brandon
Dwight: Benjamin Lake
Peaches: Jo Naphine
Zandra: Valda Aviks
Tremont: Andrew Bevis
Montel: Wills Morgan
Andrea: Annabelle Williams
Baby Jane: lore Lixenberg
Shawntel: Alison Jiear
Chucky: Marcus Cunningham
Irene: Valda Aviks
Satan: David Bedella
Jesus: Wills Morgan
Eve: Alison Jiear
Adam: Marcus Cunningham
Mary: Valda Aviks
God: Benjamin Lake
Angel Gabriel: Andrew Bevis
Archangel Michael: Annabelle Williams
Songs:
Disc:1
1. Overtly-ture Full Company2. Audience Very Plainsong3. Ladies And Gentlemen4. Have Yourselves A Good Time5. Bigger Than Oprah Winfrey6. Foursome Guests7. I've Been Seeing Someone Else8. Chick With A Dick9. Talk To The Hand10. Adverts 111. Intro To Diaper Man12. Diaper Man13. Montel Cums Dirty 14. This Is My Jerry Springer Moment15. Mama Gimmee Smack On The A**hole16. I Wanna Sing Something Beautiful17. Adverts 218. The First Time I Saw Jerry19. Backstage Scene20. Pole dancer21. I Just Wanna Dance22. It Has No Name23. Some Are Descended From Angels24. Jerrycam25. Klan Entrance/End Of Act One
Disc: 2
1. Gloomy Nurses2. Purgatory Dawning3. Eat Excrete4. The Haunting5. Him Am The Devil6. Every Last Mother F**ker Should Go Down7. Grilled And Roasted8. Transition Music9. Once In Happy Realms Of Light10. F**k You Talk11. Satan & Jesus Spat 12. Adam And Eve And Mary13. Where Were You?14. Behold God15. Marriage Of Heaven & Hell16. This Is My Cheesy17. Jerry It Is Finished18. Jerry Eleison19. Please Don't Die20. Take Care21. Martin's Richard-esque Finale de Grand Fromage22. Play Out
Available for purchase from the official Jerry Springer – The Opera website priced £16.99. Also other merchandise is also available.
www.jerryspringertheopera.com
Tickets:
You can purchase tickets online from various websites for example: www.ticketmaster.com
By Phone: 0870 890 5503 or 0870 060 1733
In Person: At the box office: The Cambridge Theatre, Earlham Street, seven Dials, London, WC2H 9HO.
*Special Ticket Offer*
If you are under 25 there are a number of limited seats available you can get them from the places listed above, but you must book at least 7 days in advance.
Shows are on:
Mon- Thurs: 7.45pm
Friday: 5.30pm and 8.30pm
Saturday: 3pm and 8pm
WARNING: THIS SHOW IS NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN!!!!
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