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NT Lyttelton Theatre: Previewed 9 April, Opened 29 April 2003, Closed 30 Sept 2003
Cambridge Theatre: Previewed 14 Oct, Opened 10 Nov 2003, Closed 19 February 2005

Opera by Stewart Lee (writer/director) and Richard Thomas (composer/book/music/lyrics), produced by Avalon Promotions Ltd and Allan McKeown in association with the National Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre. Directed by Stewart Lee with choreographed by Jenny Arnold, sets designed by Julian Crouch, musical direction by Martin Lowe, orchestrations by Martin Koch, lighting design by Rick Fisher, sound by Mike Walker and costume design by Leah Archer.

The DVD of the stage show Jerry Springer: The Opera is now available to buy online. Also available is the CD of the Original Cast Recording.

Jerry Springer - The Opera, the funniest, most original musical to hit London in years - winning the 'Best Musical Award' at the Olivier, Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Awards and winner of three Olivier Awards for Best Actor in a Musical, Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical and Best Sound Design.

Now entering its second year with a brand new cast, David Soul (star of TV's Starsky and Hutch) has taken over the role of Jerry Springer.

Both the public and the critics love Jerry Springer - The Opera and the hit show has become the place for star spotting with Tim Burton, Sir Michael Caine, Glenn Close, Sacha Baron Cohen, Joan & Jackie Collins, Simon Cowell, Sheryl Crow, Dido, Michael Douglas, Liam Gallagher, Kelsey Grammer, Dustin Hoffman, Harvey Keitel, Kevin Kline, Kylie Minogue, Pink, Leann Rimes, Meg Ryan, Rachel Stevens, Frank Skinner, Tracy Ullman, Sigourney Weaver, Billy Zane and Catherine Zeta-Jones seen in the audience amongst celebrity fans.

Come and see America's favourite talk show host suffer the worst day of his career.

The opera began its development in a series of public 'Scratch Nights' at Battersea Arts Centre in 2001 with Richard Thomas putting his own money into the performances. It was developed through a subsequent series of public workshops which were seen by Nicholas Hytner, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cameron Mackintosh and various Broadway producers and went on to be performed in concert at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in summer 2002. The writers of Jerry Springer - The Opera, Stewart Lee (writer/director) and Richard Thomas (composer/book/music/lyrics) have turned down offers of West End and Broadway productions and have chosen to complete the development of the opera with the National Theatre.

Please note: this production is not suitable for children.

News about the show

On 4 December 2002: It was officially confirmed that this production would receive its World Premiere at the National Theatre in April 2003.

On 23 January 2003: It was officially confirmed that this production will be staged at the National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre, opening 29 April 2003, following previews from 9 April.

On 24 April 2003: An extra 15 performances have been added to the run of Jerry Springer The Opera, tickets for these performances go on sale from Sturday 26 April.

On 29 May 2003: An extra 24 performances have been added to the run of Jerry Springer The Opera from 1 to 30 September 2003, tickets for these performances are now on sale.

On 4 July 2003: It was confirmed that this production will transfer to the Cambridge Theatre from 14 October 2003.

Extracts from the reviews:

From The Cambridge Theatre November 2003:

"...I'm not about to revise my own opinion of a piece that anyway comes critic-proof to the West End. Slightly to emend a characteristic lyric, sung to the sound of Handel, the musical is clearly a culting, culting, culting cult. Yes, Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee's sung-through opera is wonderfully original, at least until the interval, by when you've more than twigged its overriding joke. But, no, Act II hasn't improved with its transfer and still seems a silly, somewhat blasphemous muddle..." The Times

"...I liked the show when it first emerged, rough and raw, at the Edinburgh Festival... At the National six months ago it looked sadly over-produced, with no creative improvement. Everyone raved, except me, the man in the Bateman cartoon who didn't see the joke. Now, it fits more snugly in the Cambridge, but the second half - where Jerry is compelled to host a show-down between Adam, Eve, Jesus and Mary by his own warm-up man, Satan, is pitifully weak... The chorus is still a treat, a blast on the bleachers with fat guys and gals singing their socks off..." The Daily Mail

From The National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre April 2003 (Cast included Michael Brandon as 'Jerry' with Gordon Adams, Delroy Atkinson, Valda Aviks, Sally Bourne, David Bedella, Robert Bengtsson, Andrew Bevis, Steve Bradford, Dale Branston, Gary Bryden, Natasha Cox, Marcus Cunningham, Hadrian Delacey, Nathan Dowling, Jonathan Glew, Mark Hedges, Alison Jiear, Rachel Johnson, Benjamin Lake, Lore Lixenberg, Tania Mathurin, Samantha Mercer, Ryan Molloy, Wills Morgan, Jo Napthine, Kelly O'Leary, Alastair Parker, Guy Porrit, Jenessa Qua, Brian Saccente, Gabriella Santinelli, Gayle Telfer Stevens, Lucy Vandi, Elen Mon Wayne, Annabelle Williams and Lynne Wilmot):

"...Sung with a stunning range of vocal colours and open-throated passion by a terrific cast, the show camply plays on the outrageous similarities between confessional TV and opera. These range from the technical to the thematic. It also, in a sustained blast of blasphemy, suggests that there's a link with religious rite. Jerry can be seen as God's representative on earth - a sort of high priest before whom sinners make ritual confessions, in the hope of the absolution given by 15 seconds of fame and Jerry's 'final thought'..." The Independent

"...This musical burlesque, inspired by American TV's weirdest confessional chat show, is an utterly inspired feat of originality, both in musical and theatrical terms... Thomas and Lee have hit upon the sensible idea that the confessional form of Jerry Springer's talk show resembles the plots and arias of romantic and baroque opera. Their own, slightly anti-Catholic musical invites you to consider whether confession has become a destructive, absurd mass media process. When the authors subject sacred religious figures to the Springer technique, they surely jolt us into realising how debased the confessional process has become... The music and libretto, full of Bach and Handelian flourishes, reach fresh heights of comic, bad-taste mockery as humanism usurps religion: utter, impure theatrical pleasure." The London Evening Standard

"...[Jerry Springer - the Opera] is a hilarious masterstroke because it is about our culture, as seen through industrial quantities of irony. Not a masterpiece: it's too full of pastiche for that. But Jerry Springer - the Opera isn't just an operatic version of a Jerry Springer show, wonderfully wacky though that element of it is from the first. It's about the Jerry Springerfication of our culture... The cast is dazzling... As staged at the National, it is simply a major event of theatre: uproarious, astonishing, and, in the seriousness of its irony, utterly disarming." The Financial Times

"... It's filthy, it's funny, it's brilliantly original and, taken all in all, about as much fun as you are likely to have with your clothes on... This is a real opera, full of beautifully sung arias and duets, and with a huge full-throated chorus who sing the word Jerry as if it were Kyrie... If you are easily offended, this is not the show for you. Those with open minds and adventurous hearts will love it, however, and as the freaks' parade rolls on, the production sometimes becomes unexpectedly moving... The National has a thrilling, truly ground-breaking hit on its hands and both the West End, and Broadway, must surely beckon." The Daily Telegraph