'Jerry Springer: The Opera' Takes Manhattan

The award-winning British import is currently playing a two-night concert stint, starring Harvey Keitel...as the titular trashy talk-show host, at NYC’s Carnegie Hall — presumably in lieu of a previously announced then mysteriously scuttled Broadway run.

The conceit of Jerry Springer is that it is, in fact, a full-fledged opera, packed with arias and fugues, dramatic duets and trios, gorgeous orchestrations, and lush, sophisticated melodies by Richard Thomas. The lyrics, however, by Thomas and Stewart Lee, tend toward the lowbrow (“My mum used to be my dad... snip, snip”). Imagine a soft, confessional ballad that begins with the line “A weird thing happened last night when I went to take a leak.” (Maybe now you get the picture.) By Act 2, the shtick grows a bit tiresome; when Jerry is broadcasting Springer from Hell (get ready for a Satan versus Jesus smackdown!) the show really goes off the rails. But you have to give props to whoever thought to give Eve a serpent tattoo and a mullet.

Carnegie Hall will host the anti-Christian and blasphemous show "Jerry Springer-The Opera" on January 29, to the protests of the Catholic League and its president, Bill Donohue.

"Never before in its illustrious history has Carnegie Hall been home to Christian bashing, but that is all about to change on January 29 and 30," said Donohue. "Incredibly, it is allowing a patently obscene and viciously anti-Christian musical to be performed on its stage. Thus has it got into bed with the bigots, making a mockery of art in the process. This isn't art-it's license."

The show is filled with obscenity, and the Catholic League provides a synopsis of the show's DVD which includes Jesus admitting he's gay, sexual assault between biblical characters and portrays Satan as a friendly character frustrated with the ridiculous behavior of Jesus, Adam and Eve in streams of obscene language.