The controversial Olivier Award-winning musical Jerry Springer: The Opera will tour the UK despite the number of vehement protests that condemned the show for its R-rated subject matter and language.A number of Christian groups in the UK (such as Christian Voice) launched protest campaigns against the show early this year, and caused venues for an upcoming tour to withdraw. The protests sparked such heated controversy that the Arts Council England decided not to fund the tour. Plans for a previously-announced Broadway production were also suspended (and are still up in the air). However, 21 regional theatres have spoken up in Jerry Springer's favor, and the raunchy musical will now come to Birmingham, York, Leicester, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Manchester, Oxford,
Cambridge, Milton Keynes, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Bristol, Bradford,
Southend, Liverpool, Cardiff, Nottingham, Croydon, Brighton and Plymouth, where the tour will kick off on January 23rd, 2006. It will wrap up in Brighton on July 8th, 2006.The show was "developed on public money in public spaces and belongs to the nation,
whether the nation wants it or not," stated director Stewart Lee, who also co-wrote the show with composer Richard Thomas.Jerry Springer: The Opera, which began at the Edinburgh Festival and opened at The National Theatre on April 29th, 2003 (it moved to the Cambridge Theatre soon after). The show won the Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Awards in addition to its Olivier for Best Musical. Despite the accolades, its airing on BBC 2 early this year sparked the storm of protests, with more than 50,000 complaints pouring in.
In the first act ofJerry Springer: The Opera, a parade of foul-mouthed, chair-hurling contestants come on the talk show to lay bare their souls (as well as parts of their bodies). The second act takes a religious turn as Jerry Springer visits purgatory and hell, and is expelled from heaven. "The visit of Jerry Springer: The Opera...has stimulated huge local interest and debate; surely that is what live theatre is all about!," wrote Duncan Hendry, the chief executive of Aberdeen's His Majesty's Theatre.For more information on the tour and on Jerry Springer: The Opera, visit www.jerryspringertheopera.com.
