JERRY SPRINGER—THE OPERA
Music & lyrics by Richard Thomas
Book & additional lyrics by Stewart Lee & Richard Thomas
Choreography by Chris Bailey
Directed by John Rando
The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center
The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre
480 West 42nd Street, (212) 279-4200
www.thenewgroup.org

By Scott Harrah

Jerry Springer—The Opera was originally produced in Britain back in 2003 and received an Olivier for Best Musical. Other than a two-day concert staging at Carnegie Hall a decade ago, this profane, sung-through parody of the infamous tabloid TV talk has been absent from the New York stage until now. It’s certainly been worth the wait because this off-Broadway production is original and marvelously entertaining.

Some of the subject matter—from tap-dancing Ku Klux Klansmen to strippers, a transgender tramp and a man with a diaper fetish—was probably shocking 15 years ago, but not in modern-day America, with the wackiness of Washington and our reality TV star president giving us a daily dose of surrealistic news that is more bizarre than anything on Jerry Springer’s show.

Theater veterans Terrence Mann as Jerry Springer, and Will Swenson as his Warm-Up Man, play the leads with comic precision. Act I is basically a musical version of over-the-top staples from Springer’s show: a man, Dwight (Luke Grooms) cheating on his fiancé, Peaches (Florrie Bagel) with her best friend, Zandra (Beth Kirkpatrick) and a midriff-bearing transsexual, Tremont (Sean Patrick Doyle). There’s also a redneck, Chucky (Nathaniel Hackmann) and his wife Shawntel (Tiffany Mann), a woman with dreams of becoming a pole dancer. Plus, a man in a diaper and his girlfriend, a character called Baby Jane (Jill Paice), and more.

F-bombs abound in the numerous hilarious songs written and composed by Richard Thomas, from “Talk to the Hand” and “Mama Gimme Smack” to “Put Your F***in’ Clothes On.” Act I breezes by with scatological glory, but just like watching an episode of Springer’s show, the shock value eventually wears thin by Acts II and III. These later acts of the musical are set in Purgatory and Hell, with Mr. Swenson doubling as Satan himself. Of course, there are characters poking fun at Jesus and the Virgin Mary with blasphemous zeal. After the seamless first act, the show unravels a bit and makes little sense, but it’s all so much fun that one doesn’t mind. Just enjoy the insane ride.

Why did it take so long for Jerry Springer—The Opera to arrive on this side of the Atlantic? Who knows. The British invented the tabloid press and nurtured the concept of reality TV long before us, so perhaps one could say the U.K. has a bigger appetite and appreciation for “schlock” than America.

Theater purists and the easily offended may argue that Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee’s creation simply wasn’t good enough for a mainstream U.S. production, but it must be noted they wrote this foul-mouthed “opera” eight years before the derisive, impudent Book of Mormon became a phenomenon. For this fact alone, the show was ahead of its proverbial time.

There are numerous standouts, especially Terrence Mann as Jerry Springer and Will Swenson as Warm-Up Man/Satan. The cast is uniformly superb, with strong and melodic voices. In particular, Tiffany Mann as Shawntel is in especially fine voice doing her show-stopper “I Just Wanna Dance.” Tony winner John Rando directs all the insanity with amazing precision, and that’s no easy task in a small venue with a 17-member cast in a production as ambitious as this, with performances that are consistently and beautifully outrageous in all the right places.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published February 25, 2018
Reviewed at February 24, 2018 performance.

‘JERRY SPRINGER: THE OPERA’: Will Swenson & Terrence Mann. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘JERRY SPRINGER: THE OPERA’: Tiffany Mann. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘JERRY SPRINGER-THE OPERA’: (left to right) Terrence Mann & Jill Paice & cast. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘JERRY SPRINGER-THE MUSICAL’: Terrence Mann (far left) & cast. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘JERRY SPRINGER-THE OPERA’: Nathaniel Hackmann, Tiffany Mann & (top right) Billy Hepfinger. Photo: Monique Carboni

‘JERRY SPRINGER-THE OPERA’: (left to right) Florrie Bagel, Luke Grooms & Terrence Mann. Photo: Monique Carboni

“JERRY SPRINGER-THE OPERA’: Jill Paice (center) & cast. Photo: Monique Carboni

The post ‘Jerry Springer—The Opera’: Lowbrow meets high art appeared first on StageZine.

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Sarah Charles Lewis & the cast. Photo: Joan Marcus

TUCK EVERLASTING
Book by Claudia Shear & Tim Federle
Music by Chris Miller
Lyrics by Nathan Tysen
Based on the novel by Natalie Babitt
Directed & choreographed by Casey Nicholaw
Broadhurst Theatre
235 West 44th Street, (212-239-6200)
http://www.tuckeverlastingmusical.com/

By David NouNou

Tuck Everlasting is a well-intentioned musical but ultimately presents nothing new. To say that it shares a similar arc to Peter Pan is an understatement. Peter Pan visits a young Wendy but throughout the show he never grows up. Jesse Tuck (Andrew Keenan-Bolger) meets an 11-year-old Winnie Foster (Sarah Charles Lewis) but he never ages. Both are fairy tales and both have boys waiting for the girl to grow older so they can be together. But as we all know fairy tales–although end up having a happy ending–do not always end the way we would like them to end.

Tuck Everlasting was a novel by Natalie Babbitt published in 1975. It chronicles Winnie Foster being forced to stay home by her mother because the mourning period for her father’s death has been less than a year. Winnie wants to go to the fair that has arrived in town. Belligerently leaving her mother and Nana, she stumbles into the woods and comes across Jesse Tuck who says he’s 17 but in reality is 102. There is a reason for that. Many years ago, he and his family drank from the water trickling from a tree in Winnie’s back woods in New Hampshire and he ultimately tells her about their lives. She is kidnapped by the family; Angus Tuck, the father (Michael Park) Jesse’s older brother, Miles (Robert Lenzi) and their mother, Mae (the always delightful Carolee Carmello). The dilemma is now that Winnie knows the truth about the Tucks, what to do with her? So the story meanders into family tsuris that drinking from this fountain of youth and being able to live forever isn’t really a cure-all, but in reality a curse watching all their friends and loved ones die and having to keep running and hiding so people don’t get suspicious they are not aging. Jesse further instructs Winnie to wait six years for him until she is 17 before she can drink from the well and then they can be together.

Casey Nicholaw, acting as both director/choreographer, has a daunting task on how to keep this top spinning without it falling on its side. After all, he has done both chores for the outrageous Book of Mormon, the glorious Aladdin, and my favorite musical of the 2014/15 season Something Rotten!, there is no way of topping any of them so we are left in that gray zone of sitting through another musical that has an interesting book but is saddled with too many non-descript songs.

Fine acting and singing is done by all, especially Carolee Carmello, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Michael Park, and Robert Lenzi. Also noteworthy are Fred Applegate as Constable Joe, in search of Winnie when she is suspected to be lost; and Terence Mann as the man in the yellow suit, the carnival barker. All are talented indeed, but unfortunately the material doesn’t challenge them to be more interesting, so they end up being too one-dimensional. One must mention the lady of the evening, Sarah Charles Lewis as Winnie, for she makes a formidably self-assured Broadway debut.

Tuck Everlasting presents to each audience member the dilemma of would you drink from the fountain of youth and live forever or would you rather live your life to the fullest the way nature intended and enjoy whatever it presents you, with the possibility of a happy life: falling in love, getting married, having your own children, losing your parents and the cycle keeps revolving as life is meant to be lived? Your choice.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published May 1, 2016
Reviewed at press performance on April 30, 2016

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Carolee Carmello & Michael Park. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Fred Applegate & Michael Warte. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Terrence Mann & cast. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Robert Lenzi & Sarah Charles Lewis. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: (left to right) Terrence Mann, Andrew Keenan-Bolger & Sarah Charles Lewis. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Andrew Keenan-Bolger & cast. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Andrew Keenan-Bolger & Sarah Charles Lewis. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Robert Lenzi, Sarah Charles Lewis & Carolee Carmello. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Terrence Mann. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘TUCK EVERLASTING’: Sarah Charles Lewis. Photo: Joan Marcus

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