Jerry Springer: The Opera

If a show is being picketed, it is probably worth seeing. The luminous signs of disapproval that line the street outside George Square Theatre are an instant attraction and, by intermission, the gleeful crowd are reading the protest literature as though it were a programme.

Blasphemy is an alluring charge, and this excellent production by students of the RSAMD meets it most devilishly.

The car-crash television element of the original programme translates surprisingly well to the stage, inviting audiences to boo and hiss adulterers, traitors and tap dancing members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Like the television show itself, the play unfolds most spectacularly, slickly revealing secrets much too hot for TV. Summoned by Satan to settle the eternal battle between Heaven and Hell, Jerry Springer becomes mediator of the Gods, touching on the all too familiar subjects of troubled relationships and teenage pregnancy with guests Adam and Eve and the Virgin Mary. This is wonderfully well observed comedy, a shrewd criticism of religion and the cult of celebrity.

Should we believe the hype? Probably not, no: there’s certainly more to discuss here than the show’s skewed sense of theology.

Its style lies somewhere between La Boheme and RENT, merging the opera of Puccini’s slums with a raucous pop soundtrack. The high melodrama of opera lends itself well to the surreal comedy of Jerry Springer but the songs are fun and zesty nonetheless. The performers’ vocals are angelic; they would remain so if they were not singing some of the most deliciously foul lyrics in theatre.

The future stars of musical theatre undoubtedly lie in the cast. A testament to the high standards set by the RSAMD, the diverse singing, dancing and acting talents of its young cast is a promising vision of the future of British musical theatre. Energetic young things leap around the stage (and into the audience) with a charismatic and enthusiastic energy that ripples around the auditorium.

They find depth in the self-indulgent world of daytime television, creating characters who are less superficial than their fifteen seconds of fame would suggest. Whilst the show takes its audience to Hell and back, they are assuredly in safe hands.