Trundled down to the Cambridge Theatre recently to see Jerry Springer the Opera. JSTO has been playing to backed houses across London – first at the National and now in Covent Garden – with tickets being like gold dust.
The fact that a modern opera about an American chat show host can elicit such a response tells you all we need to know about the celebrity obsessed TV driven society we live in. I’m not going to try and gain the moral high-ground here, as I fully admit to loving the likes of Mr Personality, Extreme Makeovers, Perfect Match USA et al - in an ironic post-modern fashion of course.
Either way the producers must be laughing all the way to the bank – when we went the cheapest tickets available were £37.50 each plus the inevitable booking fee. Nice.
What's all about Alfie?
The show itself was originally billed with the tag line: “Witness triumph, tragedy and trailer trash as high art meets low in the new genre-breaking opera.”
Although this seems to have been replaced recently by a deep cultural insight provided by the legendary popular arts critic Liam Gallagher who simply said "it's the best fucking thing I've ever seen". Is it? Well in short, no. Yes, it is innovative and rather fun – at first anyway.
Michael Brandon as Jerry Springer is superb – mimicking the former Cleveland mayor to great effect – he’s so like Jerry you have to pinch yourself to remember this is Dempsey (from Dempsey and Makepeace,) not the real thing. And the chat show audience who make up the ‘choir’ are also VG, looking far too like the real motley crew of trailer trash – think big breasted women in lycra, red necked men in lumberjack shirts with mullets and pony tails – for comfort.
Act One
The first act takes you through a typically Jerry show – lots of swearing and fighting – all sung too – which is very funny (when you can hear the words that is). I wont spoil the gags here, but remember this is the programme that lists the titles of upcoming shows on its website as:
* My Boyfriend Is A Girl!
* Bizarre Family Scandals!
* My Brother Is My Lover! ...and so on... so you get an idea about the content.
The audience love it, and we did too. Although during the interval you can’t help wonder where they’re going to go next, and his is where it all starts to go wrong.
Act Two
Jerry ends up in hell, putting on a show for the Devil, with Jesus guesting on the green couch, and there’s not really much more to say really. The joke by now has worn rather thin, and we’re simply retreading the comedic ground that was mined in the first half.
As a result, I was rather bored by it all, although I think I was in a minority at this point. The crowd around me baying for more and screaming ‘Jerry, Jerry, Jerry’ at the top of their voices and whooping with delight at every Morecambe and Wise-like encore.
Conclusion
My advice would be go and see this – but only for the first half – which is great! After that the one trick pony should be put to bed, not eked out like some second rate student revue.
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