"Bigger than Dave Letterman, bigger than Bob Hope/ And give or take a few million, bigger than the f****ing pope...."

The UK religious group Christian Voice’s long campaign against it that followed the BBC’s transmission of a video version of the stage show ended with them seeking to prosecute the producers under the ancient laws of blasphemous libel, but the case was thrown out by the court last year. (Hytner was also recently a signatory, together with a roll call of personalities that included Ricky Gervais, Hanif Kureishi and Sir Jonathan Miller, to a letter that called for the repeal of the blasphemy laws, that said, “The ancient common law of blasphemous libel purports to protect beliefs rather than people or communities. Most religious commentators are of the view that the Almighty does not need the “protection” of such a law. We are representatives of religious, secular, legal and artistic opinion in this country and share the view that the blasphemy offence serves no useful purpose. Yet it allows partisan organisations or well-funded individuals to try to censor broadcasters or intimidate small theatres, print media or publishers. Far from protecting public order - for which other laws are more suited - it damages social cohesion.”)

But if the show now comes with some baggage therefore attached (and a paltry demonstration of just four protestors outside the hall last night bearing a placard, “How low can Carnegie Hall go?”), it was also thrilling to be reminded just how audacious, witty, and musically rich Richard Thomas’ score is. Not since the early Lloyd Webber of shows like Jesus Christ Superstar (itself coincidentally originally banned, when I was growing up in South Africa, for being thought of as blasphemous there) and Evita has there been a British-scored musical of such melodic depth and variety; and not since the likes of Howard Goodall with his incredibly underrated score to The Hired Man has there been music so steeped in the British choral tradition. When I was a guest of Elaine Paige’s weekly Radio 2 show in August and was asked to choose my “Five Essential Musicals”, I wanted to select Jerry Springer as one of them but realised that there was nothing that could be played on the radio without having some of its lyrics censored; so I chose The Hired Man instead – but, as I wrote here at the time, I included Jerry Springer instead on my list of my next 15 essential shows.

In his New York Times review of the Carnegie Hall concert performance today, Ben Brantley asks aloud, “Will it turn out that the great American musical of the early 21st century is an opera born in Britain? A convincing case for the rights to that title was made by the celestial Jerry Springer: The Opera, the notorious show from London about the transcendent within tabloid television, when it opened Tuesday night in a gorgeously sung concert version at Carnegie Hall for a sinfully short run of two performances.”

And it’s good to know that it hasn’t lost its capacity to shock and appal, either: in today’s New York Post, gossip columnist Cindy Adams calls it “the worst so-called theatrical event ever”, before launching into a litany of disapproval: “Jerry Springer — the Opera is filth. The dregs. Despicable, debasing, disgusting, dehumanizing, revolting, repugnant, repulsive, frightful, awful, disgraceful, discreditable, shameful, terrible, horrible, horrendous, horrific, naseauting, offensive, depraved, loathsome, vile. It is taking a roll in a sewer. it is the pits. The lowest. The slimiest. you not only need a bath after, you need an exterminator.” All of which sounds like a recommendation to me! (And what a wonderful vocabulary — or thesaurus — she has). As Cindy herself always signs off her columns, “Only in New York, kids, only in New York.”