A Review

Rude & Crude. Just Like The Original

By R. J. Donovan

SpeakEasy Stage Company is ending its season with the loud, raucous and politically incorrect "Jerry Springer: The Opera." The show is touted as having snagged every award on the books when it debuted in London in 2003. 

What you have is a sung-through musical parody of television's "The Jerry Springer Show." Clearly there's much to be parodied in Springer's endless succession of trailer park dudes and big-haired pole dancers. However, the originals are so over the top that the stage show doesn't so much spoof as replicate them.  As a result, the lowest common denominator storyline contains fewer surprises than you might expect and the ideas it does present wear thin.

Act One is a live television broadcast, splayed out before us in a litany of filthy language.  So constant is the barrage that it soon loses any effect. But maybe that's exactly what the authors intended (music by Richard Thomas, book and lyrics by Thomas and Stewart Lee). 

The characters are a sorry lot of dysfunctional losers, each of whom has a secret so dark and so vile that it can only be revealed before a live studio audience and a broadcast viewership of millions -- all eager, in turn, to feel superior to those prostituting themselves in the Springer spotlight.

Act Two finds Jerry hosting a similar show, only now it's the absolute worst day of his life. And he's got Jesus Christ and Satan as his opposing guests.

The band sits above and behind the playing area, but from where I sat, the bulk of the sound appeared to be coming from two monitors high above either side of the stage. The mix is such that the musicians often overpower the cast, which then makes the proceedings difficult to hear cleanly.  Even Michael Fennimore (as the non-singing Springer) is hard to understand -- and he's got both a body mike and a hand mike (which may be no more than a prop).

Despite all of this, SpeakEasy remains true to its reputation and gives the show a first class effort. And the cast assembled by director Paul Daigneault is a strong one, offering the talented voices of Amelia Broome, Kerry A. Dowling, Ariana Valdes, Brian Richard Robinson, Joelle Lurie and Luke Grooms. (Grooms was also in the concert version of "Springer" that played Carnegie Hall and starred Harvey Keitel.) The standout of the show is Timothy John Smith (above), playing Springer's warm-up guy in the first act, and Satan in the second.

One might question why, if this show was so fawned over when it opened in London, that it's had such a spotty history of presentation, i.e., no Broadway production and no national tours.  In interviews, Thomas has said it's because the religious right protested the show so vigorously that it scared off other productions. (In fact, when "Springer" opened at the Calderwood, protesters were waving their placards curbside.)

So, Final Thoughts on this Jerry Springer Musical Moment? If you're in an operatic mood for chair throwing, fist-fights and excrement fantasies, line right up. Just make sure you've got a bottle of Purell stashed in your hip pocket.

"Jerry Springer: The Opera" from SpeakEasy Stage, is at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center For The Arts, 527 Tremont Street, through June 7. For information, call 617-933-8600.

Production Photos: SpeakEasy Stage -- Protest Photo: Mark L. Saperstein

-- OnStage Boston

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