Review: Jerry Springer: The Opera

Jerry Springer: The Opera
Sydney Opera House
Until 26 April
Tickets $98-$128
Bookings (02) 9250 7777
Critic’s Rating 7/10


Don’t go singing any of the songs after you come out of Jerry Springer: The Opera because you’ll not only turn heads but you might attract some unwanted attention.

An opera based on a television talk show that documents the bizarre, lewd and explicit confessions of the US’s trashiest individuals is always going to generate a lot of publicity.

Add into the mix pre-op transsexuals, a man who likes wearing nappies and a black Jesus who is a "little bit gay" and you have a show which will get a lot of humourless Fred Nile frowns.

Tagged as sacrilegious and outrageous from some more serious and conservative elements of society, this British opera by Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas attracted public outcries and protests when it was first produced by the National Theatre in London.

It’s been a lot less controversial in Australia and as soon as the lights went down in the Opera House the audience was in raptures, raising their arms and punching the air with the chorus ‘Jer-ry, Jer-ry, Jer-ry!’.

A host of trashbags is then wheeled out to tell their secrets to Springer (David Wenham). There’s Dwight (Warren Fisher) with the love of his life. But then there’s her best friend, with whom he’s sleeping. Oh – he’s also sleeping with a pre-op transsexual.

Then there’s the nappy wearing, dummy sucking Montel (Lawrence Clayton), who wants his "partner of two years" to start treating him like a baby.

On either side of the action is a whooping chorus being hyped up by a warm-up guy and Steve the security guy (Marcus Graham) is standing ready to separate any hair-pulling or "bitch-slaps".

The delivery of the confessions and the "talk to the hand" catchcries in the operatic style of Bellini or Rossini make Jerry Springer: The Opera such a bizarre cultural experience.

When members of the Ku Klux Klan appear in a brilliant tap-dancing musical number at the end of the first half, the show goes from the absurd to the surreal and Montel grabs a gun and shoots Jerry by accident. The talkshow then descends into Hell and Jerry is forced to host an episode between the Devil, God, Jesus of Nazareth and Adam and Eve.

The least-interesting character throughout is Jerry Springer, who is portrayed only adequately by Wenham. It’s the Devil (David Bedella) and pole dancing aspirant Shawntel (Alison Jiear) who are the show-stoppers.

But the shock of the swearing and the adult themes have faded with time. There are plenty of hilarious moments but it’s a formulaic production directed off a spreadsheet, exposing its short shelf life. Even after just six years filling packed houses around the world, Jerry Springer: The Opera needs to pull a bigger bitch-slap.