Jerry Springer: The Opera at Boston's Speakeasy Stage Company
NE Premiere of Musical Satire Attracts Pickets and Praise
By: Larry Murray - May 06, 2009
SpeakEasy Stage company presents Jerry Springer the opera. Music by richard Thomas. Book and Lyrics by Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas. Vocal Arrangements, Martin Lowe. Orchestral Arrangements, Martn Koch. Paul Daigneault, Director. Dan Rodriguez, Music Director/Conductor. David Connolly, CHoreography. Eric Levenson, Scenic Design, SSeth Brodie, Costume Design. Karen Perlow, Lighting Design. Aaron Mack, Sound Design. Seághan McKay, Projection Design. Dawn Schall, Production Stage Manager.
Cast: Jerry Springer: Michael Fennimore, Steve Wilkos: John Porell, Warm-up Man/Satan: Timothy John Smith. Guests (in order of appearance) Dwight/God: Luke Grooms, Peaches/Baby Jane: Ariana Valdes, Zandra/Irene/Mary: Amelia Broome, Tremont/Angel Gabriel: Jared Troilo, Montel/Jesus: Brian Richard Robinson, Andrea/Angel Michael/Valkyrie: Kerry A. Dowling, Shawntel/Eve: Joelle Lurie, Chucky/Adam: Wesley Thomas. Audience/Ensemble (in alphabetical order) Ziggy Washington: Michael Andrako, Elvis Wasowski: Cheo Bourne, Dwayne Wayne: Dave Christensen, Gilbert Nixon White: Cory Kotas, Betsy lou Danvers: Lindsey Larson, Ernest Diggle: Darnell T. Roulhac, Mercedes Serenity Jones: Erin Sjostrom, Laurie Ray Johnson: Kendall Anne Thompson, Carlo Collins: Matthew Varelia, Tania Jetson: Hilary Werthmann.
At the Roberts Studio Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, Boston. Two Acts with one intermission. 2 hours, 15 minutes. Through May 30. 2009.
Jerry Springer: The Opera is hilariously funny and horrifying raunchy, a true original that needed a plucky company like SpeakEasy Stage Company to bring to life for New Englanders. After a two year run in London, its Broadway debut was torpedoed by endless litigation and controversy. The investors were scared away. This show was considered by other New England companies, but the combination of rough language and the expensive demands of a large scale musical production kept this gem unseen. Until now. Speakeasy's core mission is the staging of premieres, and in that it has no equal in the region.
Protests have been taking place, coordinated by the group America Needs Fatima and the theatre has been picketed (click on photos here), emails are arriving daily at the Boston Center for the Arts. The BCA has been unflinching in its support of free speech and expression.
For those with censorious ears, the production certainly can seem like two hours of non-stop, profanity and blasphemy, all delivered in the form of an opera, complete with three high C's and a cast large enough to stage Götterdämerung. But Jerry Springer is no Siegfried, even though we do catch glimpses of his inner Valkyrie throughout the show. He never listens to her.
The first act is a recreation of a typical Jerry Springer show, with Michael Fennimore wearing the Jerry persona like a tailored suit, and soon even the paying audience is chanting "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!"
"What do you want?" the warm-up man Timothy John Smith asks, and the audience answers: "Lesbians fighting, open crotch sightings, pimps in bad suits, mothers who are prostitutes, mutants, psychos, saddoes, winos, cocaine abusers with no noses. Bring on the losers!"
We meet a typical cross section of guests with surprise confrontations and the inevitable fights, and the trailer trash dissin' and cussin' that is normally bleeped out when watching Jerry on a real TV. On stage there are no bleeps. Just realistic language, somewhat exaggerated for theatrical effect.
Which brings us to this. When a U2 song won a Golden Globe award in 2003, Bono, on a live broadcast, blurted out, "This is really, really f-ing brilliant!" The Federal Communications Commission declared his remark "shocking and gratuitous," a threat to "the well-being of the nation's children," because it employed "one of the most vulgar, graphic and explicit" words "in the English language." Last week, in an unbelievable ruling the Supremes concurred. We may be in the 21st Century but the 19th Century attitudes of Queen Victoria live on. Perhaps something more reassuring, like an Opera Winfrey would be more to their liking.
Yes, salty language is still controversial. The FCC has received 820,000 indecency complaints since 2006, but those who meet life on the streets know how most of the world really talks.
On stage, those F-bombs become surprisingly monotonous and quickly lose their sting, only to be quickly replaced by the other forbidden phrases. George Carlin famously outed them for all to hear in his Filthy Words routine.
Anyway, the foul mouthed guests pile up as the show careens towards its Act One closing with the dancing Ku Klux Klan. A misdirected gunshot to Jerry's heart is followed by screams and hysteria. And get this - it's all sung grand opera style, except for Jerry and his warm up man whose lines are spoken.
This former altar boy who had to respond in Latin caught the "Jerry Eleison" and Bach references, too. Along with about a thousand expletives that were not bleeped, there were Handelian touches in the chorus, and enough Biblical references to make a Baptist proud.
The Bible lesson comes in Act Two when a fey Jesus in a loincloth and flip flops (Brian Richard Robinson) makes his appearance along with an imperious Satan - magnificently played by Warm-Up Man, Timothy John Smith. Jerry is given a chance to avoid the usual barbed wire probe up his behind if he can get Jesus and Satan to stop battling. All Satan wants is an apology. The sequence is hilarious with cameos by the Angel Gabriel (Jared Troilo), Mary (Amelia Bloom), Adam (Wesley Thomas) and Eve (Loelle Lurie), the Angel Michael (Kerry A. Dowling) and finally, in the largest flowing robe imaginable, carried by half a dozen acolytes, God himself, modestly played by Luke Grooms. It is a Biblical Parable that will make a deeper impression than all the stained glass windows you have seen in a lifetime.
Jerry Springer: The Opera is a near accurate reflection of his actual show - a sewer runs through both of them, and it is peopled by characters who are alternately amusing or angry, scandalous or lewd. There is a moral to the story - even those who appear to be broken and fouled by life are human, have feelings, emotions and redeeming qualities. Grotesque though they may be, they too are part of the human family.
Director Paul Daigneault has taken his modest space at the Boston Center for Arts and transformed it into an Opera House for the people. He's recruited some of the finest actors and singers from the Boston Conservatory and other area schools, and shaped them into an ensemble of considerable depth and unity. There is a nine piece band placed on a platform above the stage that keeps things moving under the firm hand of Dan Rodriguez. The set by Eric Levenson is superb, as are the costumes by Seth Bodie. Karen Perlow's lighting is excellent, and the projection design by Seaghan McKay was positively brilliant. Indeed it was clear that both the technical and artistic visions were in sync, making for a seamless production.
As an opera, Jerry Springer is a great musical. Through parody and satire, it shows us that much of what passes for entertainment on television is just contrived nonsense that exploits people for our momentary amusement. At least, on stage, unlike the TV with its real people, nobody was hurt in the making of this show. Jerry Springer: The Opera plays at the Boston Center for the Arts through May 30.
It is absolutely the most offensive show in Boston and you'll relish every minute of it!
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