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Reviews: prepare to be outraged

metromagazine
24/ 3/2006

Jerry Springer - The Opera

Opera House until April 1

JERRY Springer - The Opera is emphatically not a show for the faint-hearted.

It's vulgar, foul-mouthed and unashamedly blasphemous.

But the satirical show, which opened at Manchester's Opera House last night, is also original, provocative and hellishly funny.

Any show in which Jesus admits to being "a little gay" and God descends towards the stage on a swing singing It Ain't Easy Being Me, is pushing the bounds of acceptability. But does that mean no-one should see it?

When the show was being tried out in a small arts theatre in London, then selling out at the Edinburgh Festival and subsequently on the London stage, no-one seemed to think so.

It was only when it was due to be shown on TV that the furore broke out. That's an irony that can't have escaped writers Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas, who set out to satirize not simply religion, but the craziness of the media, including the Jerry Springer show.

Their creative master-stroke has been in setting that madness in a mock-heroic, operatic pastiche style in which the passions and obsessions of trailer-trash America seem strangely appropriate, yet still utterly barmy.

Jerry Springer (played by actor Rolf Saxon) protests, "I don't solve problems, I televise them," when he is compelled, for his sins, to chair a showdown between God and the Devil, the section of the show that has provoked most controversy.

Personally, I find this second half less compelling, more striving for effect, than the utterly demented first half, set during Jerry's earthly programme.

But that doesn't mean that this is not an audacious and scandal- ous, yet ultimately moral and challenging show that's recommended to anyone who can accept the odd dose of outrage in their lives.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Palace Theatre until June 10

FOR all the show-stopping tunes and fine performances, there was no denying Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's main attraction was a 40-year-old heap of metal.

The eponymous car even got a round of applause when it made its first appearance - whipped out from under a tarpaulin by inventor Caractacus Potts, and accompanied by pyrotechnic displays as if it was a rock star appearing on stage.

The audience may have been mildly impressed when the car - the same one which appeared in the 1968 film - began swirling around of its own accord to illustrate the family's first outing.

But when the pyrotechnic arm got into film swing, and the car shot up 15ft above the stage, even the most cynical audience member was transformed into an awestruck child.

The production was a visual feast, with loving detail put into each of the stage sets - from the inventor's windmill home to Baron Bomburst's sinister castle in Vulgaria - but it was not something that depended on special effects wizardry.

Brian Conley was in fine form as Caractacus, while there were also winning performances from Paul Greenwood playing eccentric Grandpa Potts and Marissa Dunlop as Truly Scrumptious.

Kevin Kennedy, known to millions as Coronation Street's Curly Watts, may not have been quite as scary as the film's original Child Catcher, but he put in a good turn as a pantomime villain nonetheless.

And although the old showbiz adage has it that you should never work with children or animals, that definitely didn't seem to be the case here. Jasmine Cross and Daniel Shaw were superb as Jemima and Jeremy, and there was an unexpected delight when 10 dogs made a surprise assault on the stage.

The cast of over 70 meant there were plenty of opportunities for big bombastic musical numbers - which were certainly taken up on well-loved tunes such as Toot Sweets.

Other numbers which had been added to the original score, including one in which a group of Germanic soldiers pranced about to a samba beat, were good fun but didn't seem absolutely necessary.

But all was forgotten when Caractacus, Truly and the kids got into that car and started singing that song.

World Cage Fighting Championships

MEN Arena

THE boos and cheers on the night told you all you needed to know about World Cage Fighting Championships.

It was billed as a brutal blood sport with only eye-gouging, head-butting and groin strikes not allowed - so deadly that it needed Mike Tyson as referee.

And the evening began as expected, with muscle-bound fighters staring each other down in the centre of the octagon cage after walking into the arena flanked by page 3 models and exploding pyrotechnics.

But, before a blow was landed, the same fighters fell to the floor and wrestled around on top of each for the majority of the first five-minute round. The second round was much the same, little to see except a confusion of limbs pressed against one of the sides of the steel cage.

The crowd began booing almost immediately, and continued as fight after fight was decided on submission arm locks or chokeholds after several minutes of rolling around.

The 20 or so fighters taking part definitely looked the part with muscled shoulders, eight packs, mean stares and, as they squared up at the start of each fight, it looked like there would be fireworks. But they never seemed to materialise.

Now and again a punch would actually land, and the crowd would cheer, but again the fighters would go to ground. When on the floor, they would punch and elbow each other about the head but without the leverage and weight a boxer throws into his punches, the blows had little effect.

There wasn't a knock out all evening but some bouts were at least good contests.

By the time Tyson arrived, to referee a bout that in the end lasted all of 20 seconds (another arm lock), some of the crowd had started to leave and others were becoming restless. Tyson stood at the front watching a fight, and was warmly welcomed by most in the crowd although a cheeky scouser behind us did shout at him to sit down.

It was a good night for celeb spotting; Tyson, Amir Khan, Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown and other United players, Stan Boardman and page 3 model Jackie Degg. And the biggest boo of the evening came for one of the US fighters, who entered the arena to Christian rock music and then thanked God after winning his first fight.