Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Very Funny, Amazing Voices, Exceptional |
| Disadvantages: |
Very Offensive |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Ok before everyone writes and tells me this is off topic - there is no book for Jerry Springer the Opera and this is where Ciao have put this subject, I have emailed them to ask to have the catagory moved so bear with it till it is :)
Sorry this is a long and potentially boring one!!!
HEALTH WARNING: If you suffer from easily offended syndrome, anti swearing pains or Stop ruining the CD-istis please do not read this review as you will not like it!!!! You have been warned!!
When it first opened in London I went to see Jerry Springer the Opera, as a huge musicals fan I was very excited about the prospect because this seemed such a bizarre concept I could not imagine how this could work. I knew from media that the concept was a Jerry Springer show all sung in opera and I was hooked – but not even I could imagine what I was about to see.
This fresh new musical opened in the National Theatre, London in April 2003 and has so far won a total of 14 awards including prestigious titles such as Best Musical, Best Actress & Actor in a Musical and Best London Show. With a cast of just 33 talented musical performers this show has excelled everybody expectations of it and continues to go strong in the West End.
Now as it has been a while since I have seen the show I am actually going to review the soundtrack (although there wasn’t a category for this so I’m sticking it in here!!) I’m gonna fill you in on bits and pieces of the show but I want to concentrate on the CD. If you would like to read more about the show there are some wonderful looking reviews also in this category on the show.
Cast List:
Jerry – Michael Brandon (Remember him in Dempsey & Makepeace??)
Steve – Guy Porritt
Warm Up Man/Satan – David Bedella
Dwight/God – Benjamin Lake
Peaches/Baby Jane – Lore Lixenberg
Zandra/Mary – Valda Aviks
Tremont/Angel Gabriel – Andrew Bevis
Montel/Jesus – Wills Morgan
Andrea/Archangel Michael – Sally Bourne
Shawntel/Eve – Alison Jiear
Chucky/Adam – Marcus Cunningham
Music – Richard Thomas
Lyrics – Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee
The CD can be bought from www.jerryspringertheopera.com for £16.99 and even if you don’t wish to purchase I strongly suggest this site and then make you way to the ‘video’ section to watch a great video with clips and songs from the show. You can also listen to some of the tracks on that site before committing yourself to buying the CD.
ACT ONE:
This act starts with the overtly-ture which starts in true operatic style with a myriad of classically trained voices starting slowly building the voices from around the stage until they kick in with a hint of the humour in the show ahead. I’m sorry did I say hint??? Nothing in this show is hinted at more they hit you over the head with a sledge hammer and then nail the point home but you get my drift.
It is in this overture the orchestra get to shine as with most operas the voices are what you pay attention to however in this opening the different sections of their orchestra get their glory moment including fantastic timpani onomatopoeia.
This stunning overture is quickly slided into the first choral number as the cast members wait for the Jerry Springer who to open its doors; Audience Very-Plainsong/Have Yourselves a Good Time.
It is in this number we are introduced to the first main character of the show The Warm Up Man and he continues the upbeat tempo and it is his task to introduce us to Jerry but first he has to get the crowd jeered up
‘Warm Up Man- What do you want?
Audience Members – Lesbians Fighting’
This rock/pop number really shows David Badella’s truly amazing voice and charisma and really gets the audience dancing in their seats or in this case bopping on ya sofa attempting to sing along!!!!
There is only one thing left to do once the audience is ready to roll and that’s get jerry on!!!
“Ladies and gentlemen, people of most nations of the world
Welcome the host of the greatest show on this earth
Bigger than Dave letterman, Bigger than bob hope
And give or take a few million bigger than the f***ing pope!”
Woooooo Hoooooo here's………Jerry Springer!!!!!!!!
Time to get on with show, and Jerry’s first guests are Dwight and Zandra who are married of course Dwight has a secret ‘he’s been seeing someone else’ that someone is Peaches AND Tremont – the chick with a dick!
Chick with a Dick is a fantastic queen like rock opera song that is sung with amazingly high pitch for a man by Tremont and is very funny. It’s hard to explain how funny these songs are without you being able to hear them but trust me they are hilarious and in this song we get the first and most memorable line in the show; “Talk to the hand cus the face ain’t listening”.
Time for an advert break which is brilliantly harmonised by the ensemble:
- Dr Knife, Dr Knife, Keeping you young for the rest of your life.
- Some people do as they think they should, others get Viagra and get wood!
The next guests are Montel and Andrea. Montel wants to be a baby! He wants to wear diapers and poop his pants!! – Montel Cums Dirty/Mamma Gimme Smack on the Asshole. This guy has a very deep powerfully rich voice which is a very strange but working blend of soul and jazz and this number is very upbeat and jazzy and kind of makes you want to slink around like something out of Chicago – that is if you ignore the fact he’s singing about sh*tting his pants!!! Lol
Finally we get the most incredible member of the cast back on stage; The Warm Up Guy for the Backstage Scene which gives him a chance to show he isn’t just a pop/gospel singer but a truly beautiful pure voice as he sings this solo on loneliness and then launches into a sung argument with the Springer himself.
Now for the final part of Act One. Jerry’s last guests are Shawntel and Chucky – she wants to be a pole dancer but she’s fat and old and Chucky thinks she’s a bitch. This is the most beautiful song in the entire show – “I Just Wanna Dance”, it tells the tale of a sad housewife that is no longer appreciated or loved in her marriage and wants to escape from it all:
“I wanna do some living cus Ive done dying”
And as always with Jerry Springer where would we be if the Klu Klux Klan didn’t make an appearance and here they sure do!! They enter to sombre music and then sing the funniest and possibly most black humour song “This is my Jerry Springer Moment” whilst tap dancing around a burning cross. This song is very reminiscent of Mack and Mabel style 20’s tap number very lively and fun with a more clipped note to the voices rather than the rest of the operatic classical style.
The worst thing is that right in all this fun Jerry get shot in the chest and the curtains and music close!
ACT TWO:
‘Come Jerry Gird your loins for we must journey south of heaven
Step into this elevator and set a course for the basement level’
Act two opens with Jerry in limbo but not for long because by the 4th song Satan who was previously the Warm Up Man comes to take Jerry into hell to do a show for him. This song is my favourite not least because again it features the very talented David Badella; Every Last Mother.
This song starts off slowly but then rouses into an amazing gospel/soul number not dissimilar to the Blues Brothers feeling. By the end of this song the hell devils are up and clapping and Satan’s voice commands the song, you end up feeling like you are in a very f*cked up gospel church! Satan really commands and outshines everyone on this act. He has so much energy and such a tremendous vocal range and this song makes his mark on the act.
With ‘Once in Happy Realms of Light’ Satan explains why he wants Jerry to do the show for him is because that once he was an angel in heaven and then because he rebelled he was cast down and not even granted death but pain eternal and he wants a f*cking apology!!! This song is sung with such pain and purity that against all your better judgement you actually feel sorry for Satan and you want that apology too.
Time for the first guest:
‘So lets see if we can get an apology from my first guest The hypocrite son of the fascist tyrant on high, Jesus of Nazareth.’
F*ck you Talk is an incredible vocal number that lasts for 2.46mins much of the time acapella and without musical breaks. This is the one song that shows the absolute strength of the voices in this show (I bet they don’t smoke with lungs like that!), for over 2mins this duet has Jesus and Satan singing scales, their voices harmonise perfectly and they do not battle for attention, each one has his moment of more power than the other and then the vocal dynamics switch. This is the one song that received the biggest applause and even an ovation when I saw it and listening to it you can’t fail to be impressed and an insy bit jealous.
Jesus - “I am love and I love all mankind”
Devils - “Jesus is gay, Jesus Is gay”
Let’s welcome our second guests – ‘he was fashioned from a lump of clay and she showed kindness to a snake. Adam and Eve’
Again the pair that were previous Shawtel and Chucky stomp on with a great rock argument, these voices somehow work with Jesus’ opera voice to create what should be a mess of vocals all jamming together but is in actual fact a stunning set of different vocal styles and harmonies all blending together with perfect pitch and balance.
The good thing about this CD is you get everything including the acted scenes and not just the songs which means that we get to hear the fight that ensues and the big slap across the face from Jesus on Eve.
Jerry: ‘Oh that’s just great Jesus you hit a woman!’
Jerry – ‘Well Satan we have a surprise guest who would like to give her version of events please welcome the teenage mother of Jesus, Mary.’
And so concludes our guests in Jerry Springer in Hell so what happens now?? Does Jerry get to go to Heaven?? Nope of course not Satan wants him to go down further *wink* but of course just in the nick of time there is a miracle and down pops God for a final showdown but not before a funny Elvis ballad type number “It ain’t easy being me”. God has a full rich, very lovely calming voice with the most amazingly held note of the show for which he gets applause half way through his song and cheers. (All of this you can hear on the soundtrack.)
Jerry’s Final Thought for Hell
‘Satan you aren’t ever gonna get an apology, God you just don’t get a shoulder to cry on and Jesus grow up and put some f*cking clothes on, haven’t you heard of yin and yang, nothing is wrong & nothing is right and everything that lives is holy and in conclusion f*ck you….f*ck you all.’
Jerry of course isn’t dead and wakes up from being unconscious after being shot and then his time in hell unravels after a dream. So it is a happy ending for Jerry at least – who knows about the guests.
Guests – ‘Who will speak for us, when you are gone?’
Jerry – ‘Oprah Winfrey’
Guests – ‘She’s too tame’
Jerry – ‘Sally Jessie Raphael?’
Guests – ‘She’s too old’
Jerry – ‘Dr Phil?’
Guests – ‘He’s too shit!’
Finale – is a great mega mix of the songs from the show with some tap dancing jerry’s thrown in for good measure!!! Its is fun and if you haven’t been singing along with the libretto and dancing round your room yet you wont be able to help surrendering to the upbeat mega mix. I defy you not to dance!!!!
Angi’s Final Thoughts
This CD is amazing – if you love musicals and aren’t easily offended then you have to give this a go, it is the funniest most refreshing musical since Rent. After too many rock musicals that lack substance or originality it is finally refreshing to have something original on our stages. If you have never listened to opera before and it scares you give this a try because much of it although with classical voices is light opera or rock. What I like most about this opera is that although it is highly offensive the gags subject offense to every section of society so it is hard to feel annoyed because no one is left out of the frey! My obvious favourites in this CD are David Badella as Satan with his incredible vocal range and power and Alison Jiear as Shawtel with such an amazing belt voice as you have ever heard!!
With 49 songs on this CD you are getting brilliant value for money despite the seemingly hefty price tag.
I will leave you with one last line from the show.
Jerry – “Accidentally shot by in a man in a diaper trying to kill a member of the Klu Klux Klan that’s not the epitaph I was hoping for.”
Thanks for taking the time to read this hefty review………..Till next time take care of yourselves and each other!
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