Jerry Springer the Opera

The premise is simple: the audience finds itself part of the Jerry Springer TV show experience, with the chorus as Jerry's audience, chanting the expected "Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!" and ever-lewder comments while guests come on to the show to tell their loved ones - in song - their personal secrets. Arias, recitatives, duets and choruses there are (should you wish to call them that), otherwise you are swept away with the sheer audacity of the libretto.

Yes, there's a transvestite ("chick with a dick") and a guy whose fantasy is to wear diapers while having sex (and more), while many more of life's most weird and wonderful characters also appear, so that normal opera plots seem quite restrained compared to Jerry Springer!

But there are also moments of utmost poignancy, where simple wishes for a good life, or the desire to lose oneself in dancing, are brought into clear focus. What better indication could there be of the unique power of opera?

Having said that (if it isn't already obvious), this is not a show for the faint-hearted; the swearing quotient is high (indeed whole choruses are made up of just such words), and there are those that may find the content unpalatable. Then again, Verdi and Mozart et al often faced the censors for the audacious political plotting, so we kid ourselves that opera has always been a genteel art.

Here events take a devilish turn as Jerry faces his biggest challenge ever, to mediate between heaven and hell, with argumentative characters from both below and above all clamouring for him to let them have their say. Will Jerry's long-suffering security guard, Steve, be able to keep them all apart?

Anyone interested in how opera can conquer in the 21st century should not miss this production!

In addition to its Best Musical Awards - from the Oliviers, the Evening Standard, the Critics' Circle and What's On Stage - it won three further Oliviers, for Best Actor in a Musical, Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical and Best Sound Design.