Inside Move: Soul searching
'Jerry Springer' gets new impersonator
Michael Brandon, the American-born thesp who won acclaim as the role's originator, will play his final perf July 10, with Soul stepping in July 12.
But three of the higher-profile cast members are staying with the production: Fellow American thesp David Bedella, who won an Olivier for playing Springer's warm-up man and, later in the show, Satan; Olivier-nommed Alison Jiear, who appears as, among other people, Eve; and Benjamin Lake, who makes a notably rotund, robustly sung God.
Soul remains best known as the latter half of popular TV series "Starsky and Hutch." More recently, he has been based in London, appearing in plays like Alan Ayckbourn's "Comic Potential."
Although Soul has a hit single to his credit, his singing voice will be of no use to "Jerry Springer -- The Opera": It's one of the jokes of the musical that its title character doesn't get to sing a note.
"Springer" opened in April 2003 to general raves at the National Theater before transferring last fall to the Cambridge Theater, where it swept all four of London's critics' and industry awards for the season's best musical.
It is unclear whether Springer look-alike Brandon will take the title role for the musical's forthcoming American engagements, first in San Francisco and then on Broadway. A London spokesman for the show says all American casting still is "up for grabs."
