When Jerry Springer – the Opera premiered at the National Theatre three years ago as the boldest of opening statements from Nick Hytner’s then-new regime, the show made headlines for all the right reasons. Not only was a major new composing and directing talent (Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee respectively), both of them nurtured on the comedy circuit and their show developed on the fringe, being admitted to the theatrical establishment, but the National, too, was a place for younger audiences too – a huge proportion of Jerry’s audience there hadn’t been to the National before. And then there was the breakthrough it represented for British musical theatre itself (it went on to win a slew of major awards).
But when the BBC broadcast a TV version in December 2004, a minority pressure group called Christian Voice suddenly noticed it was on and hijacked it for their own publicity. They succeeded in putting the frighteners on some regional venues, who – after the Birmingham experience of Behzti, closed down by Sikh protestors – withdrew from plans to house a tour and put it in serious jeopardy. However, the tour has now gone ahead – even with a little bit of Arts Council funding endorsement; but while Christian Voice are now rallying their protesting forces again and their supporters were singing hymns outside the Birmingham Hippodrome when I saw it last night, the public who want to make up their own minds are happily far outnumbering them.
And the show – even in a necessarily scaled-back staging that has reduced the cast by a third, so the onstage studio audience is now a rather frugal ten – makes as big an impact as it has ever done. Beyond the audacity of the concept and its dazzling execution, what continues to astonish and bewitch me is the beauty and intelligence of the score; in terms of sheer number of original melodies, there hasn’t been a British musical like it since Evita.
