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Dateline: 20th September, 2005
In an unprecedented move, announced today, 21 theatres from around the UK (Plymouth Theatre Royal, Birmingham Hippodrome, York Grand Opera House, Leicester De Montfort Hall, Glasgow King's Theatre, Aberdeen His Majesties, Manchester Opera House, Oxford New Theatre, Cambridge Corn Exchange, Milton Keynes Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Bristol Hippodrome, Bradford Alhambra, Southend Cliffs Pavilion, Liverpool Empire, Cardiff Millennium, Nottingham Royal Concert Hall, Croydon Fairfield Halls, Brighton Dome) have united with the creative team and producers Avalon, to save the tour of the multi-award winning smash hit musical Jerry Springer - The Opera. The Olivier Award winning will now open in Plymouth on the 23rd January 2006. This announcement follows The Arts Council England's recent refusal to fund the stricken tour, which had suffered the debilitating loss of 30% of its venues following well-publicised pressure from Christian Voice.
Composer and Co-writer Richard Thomas, added, "I am overjoyed Jerry Springer - The Opera is going on tour in spite of such extreme protest. I am also buying a flak jacket. And sticking close to shadows." Producer, Jon Thoday said, "I'm delighted that the small minority have not prevented the public from seeing this brilliant show. Freedom of speech and artistic freedom have prevailed." The musical has already been seen by 425,000 people in the theatre and was watched by 2.4 million viewers on BBC Two on January 8th 2005 - a record TV viewing figure for a musical or opera. It also made theatre history by receiving all possible theatre awards for Best Musical. (The Olivier Awards, The Critics' Circle Theatre Awards, The Evening Standard Theatre Awards and The What's on Stage Awards). The show was first workshopped at the Battersea Arts Centre in 2001, performed in concert at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2002, fully realised at the National Theatre in 2003, transferred to the Cambridge Theatre in the West End in October 2003 and closed in February 2005. Protests against the TV showing and the tour were orchestrated by the fundamentalist Christian Voice group which has threatened to picket any theatre at which the show appears. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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