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Jerry Springer — The Opera
''Jerry Springer: The Opera'' is a British musical written by Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee, based on the talk show ''Jerry Springer''. It contains irreverent treatment of Christian themes, extensive profanity, and surreal images, such as a troupe of tap-dancing Ku Klux Klan members. The musical ran for 609 performances in London from April 2003 to February 2005 before touring the UK in 2006. It won four Laurence Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical. The first North American performance was at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The musical has been performed by a number of American regional theatre companies and made its New York City debut on 29–30 January 2008 at Carnegie Hall. Harvey Keitel starred as Jerry. In January 2005, its British television broadcast on BBC Two elicited 55,000 complaints. The organisation Christian Voice led street protests against the screening at nine BBC offices and announced their intention to bring blasphemy charges, due to the depictions of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Thomas (musician)
Richard Thomas (born 1964) is a British composer, writer, and comedy actor. He is best known for composing, writing and scoring the award-winning '' Jerry Springer: The Opera'' with book and additional lyrics co-written with Stewart Lee. Thomas collected the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Score in 2004. Richard Thomas's comedy career began in 1987, doing a musical act on keyboards. In 2000, he wrote and performed a one-act opera called ''Tourette's Diva'' with four actors, which aired at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Thomas had the idea for an opera based on Jerry Springer at this time, and wrote it over the next two years, chiefly in workshops at Battersea Arts Centre. Thomas would offer a "Beer for an Idea", where any audience members submitting a good idea would be rewarded with a can of Foster's and poor ideas with a supermarket store brand. After a number of small scale performances of the first act, which was in much the same shape as it remains today, the secon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |