New stand-up opera heads for London

The creators of Jerry Springer: The Opera are to take their new production, set in a stand-up club, to the West End stage.

Comedian Stewart Lee, co-writer of the controversial musical, said their next venture would be coming to London in about 18 months.

With composer Richard Thomas, he has already staged the show, The Ha-Ha Hole in Germany, and sung in German.

But the new version will be performed in English after the pair found that the language’s structure was not suitable for the rhythms of stand-up.

Their plans were  revealed in an Edinburgh show called How To Write An Opera About Jerry Springer, being staged today and tomorrow only.

They also revealed that they were unsure whether a planned national tour of the Opera, which has already been postponed, would go ahead in the face of furious protests from evangelical Christian groups.

A DVD of the show, which attracted 60,000 protests when screened on the BBC, will be released in November.

Published: 16 Aug 2005