Dublin first for controversial musical

Jerry Springer: The Opera is to be performed in Ireland for the first time.

Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas’s controversial musical is to be staged at the 2,000-seat Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin for a week, starting at the end of this month.

The dates come five years after the show’s tour of the UK was hit by protests by right-wing religious group Christian Voice, angry at the portrayal of Jesus as an adult wearing a nappy and Eve as a stripper.

However Simon Delaney, who plays the talk-show ringmaster in the National Youth Musical Theatre production, says: ‘What it’s really about is the modern obsession with 15 minutes of fame.’

He also told the Irish Times: ‘People will come to be offended, and if we haven’t offended you we haven’t done our job.’

The profane musical, which started life at the Edinburgh Fringe, ran for more than 600 performances in London from 2003 to 2005 – when a BBC Two broadcast prompted the Christian backlash. The show has since toured America, and had short runs in Australia and Canada.

The Grand Canal Theatre warns: ‘Recommended for mature audiences only due to extremely coarse language and adult situations.’

Click here for tickets to the Dublin show, which opens on October 31.

Published: 11 Oct 2011