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Jerry Springer Premiere Launches Hytner's NT ReignDate: 4 December 2002
Though it's already been around the block a bit, the "trailer trash tragedy", Jerry Springer - The Opera, is now due to receive its world premiere at the National Theatre, the first production under the new reign of incoming NT artistic director Nicholas Hytner. Though exact dates have yet to be confirmed, the production is due to open at the NT Lyttelton in April 2003, with tickets on sale in early 2003.
Conceived and created by writer and director Stewart Lee and composer Richard Thomas, Jerry Springer started life in May 2001 at a "scratch" development night for new work at Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) and quickly took on cult status. It returned for a three-week sell-out season last February which attracted myriad celebrities and theatrical powers-that-be - including Hytner, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cameron Mackintosh, Rocky Horror's Richard O'Brien and various other producers.
At the time (See The Goss, 20 Feb 2002), the show was being touted for an immediate West End and/or Broadway transfer. Instead, Lee and Thomas chose to take it to this year's Edinburgh Fringe and work with a National Team, led by Hytner to develop a fuller production. Also involved in the ongoing collaboration was original designer Julian Crouch (of Shockheaded Peter renown), Allan McKeown (Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and comedy producer Avalon.
As the new suggests, the opera is based on American's most lurid talk show and US host who broadcast programmes entitled "Pregnant by a Transsexual", "Here Come the Hookers" and "I Refuse to Wear Clothes". In it, Springer (pictured) - who has apparently given his blessing to the stage spin-off - is taken from his studio to both heaven and hell, confronting some of his bizarre guests, including a Chick with a Dick and a diaper-wearing baritone, along the way.
Commenting on the National's involvement with the new premiere, Hytner said: "I've followed the development of Jerry Springer - The Opera since I saw it in a workshop production 18 months ago at Battersea Arts Centre. It's exactly the kind of work the National should be doing: bold, scabrous, funny and beautiful."
For his part, originator Stewart Lee, who will again direct, added: "I am really pleased to be directing Jerry Springer - The Opera at the National Theatre as it is on the 243 bus route that goes directly to my home in Hackney."
- by Terri Paddock
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