Jerry Springer: the Opera review

Jerry Springer: the Opera Review - Broadway musical

Once upon a time, when a well-known composer Richard Thomas was sitting in his room, switching TV channels, he came to the show of Jerry Springer. The dregs of society, ready to gnaw through each other's throats, debris of thudding information flowing directly through the screen’s glass thickness, were swallowed by the audience of all categories. This made him horrified, nearly causing a puking reflex. He thought that society is divided into those who are ready to wave with their dirty laundry in front of a crowd for five minutes of despicable fame, and those who are eagerly watching with perverse pleasure the exposure of disgusting details of other people's lives, absorbing and memorizing them.

Darkly pondering all this in front of a screen, on which the unknown people were ready to tear each other's throats like fighting dogs, Richard gave birth to a not bad idea: to show this cons of society in musical. He didn’t even have to invent anything, because all the mentioned characters were real but nasty people, exhibited in the broadcast of Jerry Springer. The play was written, the actors were selected, and after the opening, tickets were sold with a bang. Richard Thomas managed to do the unthinkable: to reveal the darkest and repulsive facets of society in the sparkling satire, where every turn was even blacker than black, every phrase was a direct hit in the human vices.

This musical is for gourmets. Being recognized by all British critics, it was sold-out all the time, having incredible success with the most disparate public. Intellectuals were amazed with its depth, embedded in such a simple story, and the ordinary audience, modestly weaker than constant theater-goers, enjoyed a gorgeous black humor. However, after the appearance of the musical on television, many were furious and demanded to close the histrionics, to stop the production and to remove such a shame from the theater scenes. The mentioning of religion in the spectacle of such genre caused a lot of disputes and grievances. Even more riots and protests against the musical were arranged, degrading the feelings of believers. People considered swear words as insulting and humiliating, counted the total number of them in the play, demanding to replace all libretto. Due to complaints, they even had to stop selling DVDs in 2005. All the questions producers answered in that way: everyone bears the risk of not being understood by the masses, trying to show something intriguing and provocative.
Last Update:April, 19th 2016