| Jerry Springer: the Opera | - 20 March - 1st April
- Opera House
- Quay St, Manchester M3 3HP
- Box office: 0870 401 9000
- or www.getlive.co.uk
|
Yes, the evening's entertainment really began outside on Quay Street before the curtain went up on this controversial show as it opened in Manchester at the Opera House. In front of local TV cameras, a handful of earnest Christian Voice protesters reminded us – just in case we’d returned from five years solitary in the Gulag – that ‘Jesus is mocked and ridiculed in this theatre.’ Over the road, the placards of a counter-demonstration jeered: ‘Stop being so bloody silly!’ The eternal battle of good against evil was raging – and we hadn’t even taken our seats.
 | | Trash: guests in the show |
I think I should make it clear from the outset that ‘Jerry Springer – the Opera’ is not a show for those who are easily offended – by the F-word. Or the C-word. Or some other letters you haven’t thought of. This clearly wasn’t a problem for a large proportion of the audience who, judging by the arm-waving and chants of ‘Jerry, Jerry!’, were more familiar with daytime TV than most. The show is a clever pastiche of the trash TV talk show with Springer’s guests and studio audience all exchanging insults and abuse in operatic style. | "The husband of a would-be pole dancer is exposed as a Klansman and a man tells his lover that ‘filling his diaper’ is the thing that turns him on" | | Richard Turner, reviewer |
In the first half, we meet Springer (Rolf Saxon) occupying the moral low ground as his guests come clean about their infidelities, disgusting and delighting his fickle studio audience in equal measures. A fat guy begs his fiancée to take him back in front of his two lovers, one a transvestite; the husband of a would-be pole dancer is exposed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan; and a man informs his lover that ‘filling his diaper’ really does it for him. It seems that everyone wants their Jerry Springer moment - even, in one of the more surreal scenes, a group of dancing Klansmen! Unholy insults And then there’s the religious bit. Jerry is forced to do a special show in Hell as Satan and Jesus trade unholy insults. (‘Talk to the stigmata, the face ain’t listening!’)
 | | Go to Hell: Satan (Dean Hussain) |
God appears as the surprise guest as Jerry tries to explain: ‘I don’t solve problems, I just televise them.’ Jesus admits he's 'a bit gay'. Mary is introduced as the woman who was 'raped by angel, raped by God.' To be honest, Jerry Springer, the Opera is reasonably entertaining though falls some way short of hilarious. Yes, it's blasphemous if you choose to take it literally. But this is comedy. Where it scores highly is in its total originality and irreverence. All ideas and beliefs should be strong enough to be challenged and ridiculed. This is social and religious satire and deserves the same rights of free expression as Life of Brian, Father Ted or a Dave Allen joke about the Almighty. As for ridicule? Those who ‘eat, excrete and watch TV’ are the real figures of fun. Not that they seemed to care. Out on Quay Street, the protesters have packed up. And so have the TV crews. It seems Christian Voice have had their Jerry Springer moment. A final thought: Maybe they should move the show onto the street – real life is far more entertaining. Rolf Saxon won the MEN Theatre Awards Best Actor for his part in Arthur Miller’s The Price at the Library Theatre | 
