Jerry Springer - The Opera in Concert: Harvey Keitel to star

Harvey Keitel will star in Jerry Springer - The Opera In Concert. The smash hit musical and historic four-time winner of London's Best Musical prizes will play Carnegie Hall for two nights only on 29 and 30 Jan 2008.

Directed by Tony Award nominee Jason Moore (Avenue Q) and with musical direction by Stephen Oremus (Wicked), Jerry Springer - The Opera In Concert features music by Richard Thomas, with book and lyrics by Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas.

Harvey Keitel's Broadway credits: Hurlyburly (1984), Death of a Salesman (1975 revival). Keitel, who has made countless films, was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Mickey Cohen in Bugsy (1991).

Jerry Springer - The Opera In Concert is inspired by America's most lurid TV talk show host who brought worldwide television audiences episodes including "Pregnant by a Transsexual," "Here Come the Hookers" and "I Refuse to Wear Clothes." As author Richard Thomas said of the television show: "It's got tragedy. It's got violence. There are people screaming at each other and you can't understand what they're saying. It's perfect for opera!"

The show opened in London to unprecedented rave reviews: "A bruising, shocking, irresistibly funny masterpiece" (Sunday Times); "Nothing more entertaining to be seen anywhere" (The Mail on Sunday) and "Sets a new standard for musical theatre." (The Observer).

A review of the show by our sister site, Jerry Springer - The Opera In Concert, described the production in the following terms "The first half of the musical takes the usual format of a Jerry Springer Show with guests making their bizarre revelations whilst being verbally abused by the audience. The second half takes place in hell in which God, Jesus, Mary and other figures from Christianity are forced to make confessions of their own and are treated with the same distain as any other guest. The same �trailer park trash� that populates the average Jerry Springer Show apparently colonizes Heaven," and went on to praise the production as "An addictive shot of pure vulgar fun."

The play caused controversy in the UK, especially when it was broadcast on British television by the BBC, with some Christian groups calling it 'blasphemous" and organising demonstrations when it toured the UK.

Jerry Springer - The Opera In Concert will be produced in the U.S. by David J. Foster, Jared Geller and Avalon Promotions. If the concerts are a success, then the producers say that a Broadway production may well follow.