Four nominees for Stewart Lee's musical

Jerry Springer: The Opera has been nominated for four of the most prestigious awards for off-Broadway Theatre, including best musical.

Stewart Lee wrote the show with composer Richard Thomas, but earlier this year the comedian revealed that he informally relinquished the rights when he split from former agents Avalon, who also produced the show.

The new production, from The New Group, has now been nominated for outstanding musical in New York’s Lucille Lortel Awards, which are now in their 33rd year

Terrence Mann is also shortlisted for best lead actor for playing the role of Springer, with Sean Patrick Doyle up for best featured actor and Tiffany Mann for best featured actress.

The new show began at the  Pershing Square Signature Center in January, and closed at the weekend, having had its run extended by three weeks.

On a podcast earlier this year, Lee said of the New York production:  ‘I assume I'll get paid for it at some point. But it just depends if it finds its way back from Avalon to me. I don't know.'

When he split from the management company in the early 2000s, he waited until all the accounts were clear and then ‘just left’.

'But I knew they would try to hold me to them by saying, "Well, we've got the rights to this, we've got the rights to that"… So I sent them a letter saying "I relinquish all rights to it". Because I knew I had to get out, to try to make what I was doing economically viable.’

He also said that he had been  'given more credit than I deserve' for the show.

The Lucille Lortel Awards will be handed out on Sunday, May 6.

Published: 5 Apr 2018