Details of the Northern-based talent lined up to appear alongside Michael Howe in the eagerly-awaited revival of Jerry Springer The Opera at Manchester’s Hope Mill Theatre this summer have been partly revealed.
As previously announced the veteran stage and screen actor known for his roles in TV shows Life Begins, Solo and Hollyoaks, and on stage in West End productions of Footloose, Chess, and 42nd Street will take on the title role in the show.
Commenting on his casting in the new production of the controversial multi-award-winning musical, Howe said: “I’m so excited to join the show and be part of the revival of such an iconic piece of social theatre. It is going to be a theatrical rollercoaster of a show. And I’m really looking forward to performing at Hope Mill Theatre, I’ve heard lots of great things about this fantastic venue.
“I can’t wait to start rehearsals and meet my fellow cast members and the Jerry Choir, who just sound incredible. It’s going to be a fantastic four weeks in Manchester, and I cannot wait to meet the audiences.”
Howe will be joined by Matt Bond (Jekyll & Hyde, Sweeney Todd) as Dwight and God; Emily Chesterton (Bark! The Musical, The Kissing Dance) as Peaches and Baby Jane; Georgina James in her UK theatre debut as Andrea and Archangel Michael; Kai Jolley (Stop!..The Play, Violet The Musical) as Steve; Tom Lloyd (Parade, Saturday Night Fever) as Satan and Jonathan Weiruss; and Andrew Patrick-Walker (Bat Out of Hell, Hair) as Tremont and Angel Gabriel.
The cast will be joined by 14 actors selected from across the Greater Manchester region who will support the professional performers as the Jerry Choir.
Nearly 15 years after Jerry Springer The Opera was last performed in the UK, the show (the first offering from new production company Northern Ricochet) will play the Ancoats’ venue from 8-31 August 2019.
Announcing the ensemble cast, the show’s director Northern Ricochet’s James Baker said: “What a formidable cast we have to revive Jerry Springer The Opera . When we launched Northern Ricochet, we knew that the North West was a hot-bed for talent, but we were totally overwhelmed with the calibre coming through auditions.
“Soon we will announce all 14 actors, bringing the entire company up to a total of 28 performers each night in the intimate Hope Mill Theatre, this is going to make one ‘hell’ of a noise – we just can’t wait to bring the entire company together and start rehearsals to bring the show back to the stage for the first time in 15 years and continue making some raucous noise with a powerful heart for the audiences of the North West. I say: “Go, Jerry, go!”
The production is a homecoming of sorts for the three founders of Northern Ricochet, director Baker, musical director Tom Chester and producer Bill Elms who first met at the Manchester venue in 2016 as part of the creative team on Parade.
Set up with ambitions to produce ‘quality theatre in the North, for the North and featuring Northern creatives, actors and voices’, Northern Ricochet’s debut production will be directed by Baker with Chester serving as musical director and Elms as co-producer.
Announcing the production earlier this year, Baker said: “When Jerry Springer The Opera first hit stages in the UK, it created a mass protest. It was unapologetic, uncompromising, fresh and original – and fused a highbrow form with a lowbrow subject matter. This fusion was what first attracted me. After getting through the protestors, I sat down and watched the best two hours of entertaining yet profound theatre I’d seen in years. It started a revolution.
“Jerry was ground-breaking and placed a mirror up to the audience. A mirror of reflection and a possibility for us to learn something. The big question is, have we learned anything? Sadly not, and I’d argue we’re even more divided than before. Prejudice still remains within race, sexuality and equality. Just because we don’t see it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I think we’ve just got better at pretending all is more harmonious. We’ve become even better actors than those in the Jerry show. Reality has become even more blurred.”
Written by Richard Thomas who also wrote the music and lyrics, Jerry Springer The Opera features a book and additional lyrics by Thomas and Stewart Lee. Inspired by one of the most distinctive and controversial TV personalities in US history, the show previewed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2002 before moving to London for an initial six month run at the National Theatre.
An 18-month West End run followed at the Cambridge Theatre before the show hit the road for a UK tour in 2006 which included dates in Manchester.
Based on the ground-breaking US TV series, The Jerry Springer Show, which was first broadcast on television in 1991 and was on the air for 27 years, it tells the story of America’s favourite talk show host who suffers the worst day in his career when faced with some of the most challenging guests he’s ever met on set.
During its original run, Jerry Springer The Opera made theatre history by receiving an unprecedented four awards for Best Musical at the Olivier Awards, the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards, the Evening Standard Theatre Awards and the WhatsOnStage Awards.
The show was most recently seen Off-Broadway last year when it played a six-week run which proved so popular the run was extended for an extra three weeks.
Angela Thomas
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