It was a typical day in the life of talk show host Jerry Springer until he was “accidentally shot by a man wearing a diaper, trying to kill a member of the Ku Klux Klan” and all hell broke loose. Hart House Theatre’s second run of Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas’s Jerry Springer: The Opera had its opening night last Thursday, and is sure to see another successful season. All the debauchery and rowdiness of the television show is put on stage in a completely unapologetic look at life—or in this case, day-time television—as it is, rather than how it ought to be.
Jerry Springer: The Opera seemed a mammoth show to put on. With so many moving parts, it was impossible to contain the cacophony to the relatively small Hart House Theatre stage. To compensate, the production team has made ample use of the aisles and the front row. Thankfully, the audience felt involved rather than the set looking like the show had spilled off the stage.
The lighting, effects, and costumes were appropriately over the top. At times, however, the lighting seemed haphazard and did nothing to enhance the play. The costumes were tacky, gaudy, and obnoxious, but beautiful in their complete trashiness. Shawntel (Kelly Holiff) looked like a hot mess in the most positive sense of the term, and the bedazzled Ku Klux Klan member made my night.
The cast was fabulous, with the interplay between characters an integral part to the show’s success. Jason Zinger was great as both Jonathan (the Warm Up Guy) and Satan, bringing levity and charisma to both characters that had me rooting for them instead of Jerry. And the ensemble! They truly tied the performance together. Their heckling underscored the humour, at times becoming the play’s vehicle of satire and irony.
But what really carried this piece was the music; I would go as far as to say that the play was funny only because it was set to music. Though I have not been to a traditional opera to properly make the comparison, the music had all the extravagance and ear-splitting high notes that I associate with the genre. Even the fervour of conductor/music director Lily Ling’s keyboard playing fit my preconceptions of what opera should be. To have all that paired with such scandalous lyrics resulted in pure magic.
“How can you watch that and call it theatre?” someone said when I mentioned Jerry Springer: The Opera. Maybe she’s right. But if this is a subpar performance, it simply pulled the wool over my untrained eyes. Despite its crass exterior I did try to find some meaning behind it all. Maybe my friend’s reaction also reflects on society as a whole when we, like the studio audience portrayed by the ensemble, are so quick to judge anything that doesn’t fit into our narrow conception of normalcy without bothering to take a critical look at ourselves. Or maybe it’s just hella funny. If you want to find out, feel free to dip yourself in chocolate and get your own Jerry Springer moment.
Jerry Springer: The Opera runs at Hart House Theatre through Oct. 10.
