US Catholics are calling for the cancellation of Jerry Springer – The Opera in Concert scheduled for performance at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 29 and 30.

The controversial production is being opposed by The American TFP and its America Needs Fatima campaign. The group’s web site, www.tfp.org, is asking its readers to voice their concern by signing an e-mail protest addressed to Mr. Sanford Weill, Chairman of the Carnegie Hall Board of Directors.

The e-mail message states: The show is vulgar beyond description and is an egregious display of blasphemy. Over 82% of America is Christian. Millions feel insulted by this show.

We’re hoping Carnegie Hall will just cancel the show and avoid becoming a center for the promotion of blasphemy and indecency, said TFP spokesman Robert Ritchie. The show mocks everything Catholics hold sacred: the crucifixion, Jesus and the Virgin Mary. The Annunciation is described as a rape. Nudity and profanity abound and Catholic beliefs are ravaged.

Jerry Springer: The Opera is already causing a stir in the talk show host's hometown of Cincinnati.

The New Stage Collective is putting on the production, and organizers said that they've already received 14,000 letters from people protesting the show.

The troupe said they wanted to bring the show to town for two reasons: to acknowledge the city Springer started in and because, they said, the city has served as a battleground for the First Amendment.

The show is set to run June 26 through Aug. 3.

Update: Opening Night Protest

25th June 2008

When Jerry Springer: the Opera opens in Cincinnati on Thursday it will be greeted by a “rally of reparation” made up of protesting pseudo-Catholic cultists.

The campaign is being organised by Robert Ritchie who entitles himself “executive director” of America Needs Fatima - an offshoot of the pseudo-Catholic American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property.

There were two shows going on at Cleveland's Beck Center for the Arts last Friday night.

Almost 100 people, from babes-in-arms to grandparents, were gathered outside the theater in protest to what was going on inside the theater. Placards carried by children and grandparents alike screamed Beck Center Promotes Blasphemy and Just Say No to Jerry Springer in opposition to the regional premiere of Jerry Springer The Opera, a show that pokes fun at Christianity among other subjects.

It's not fair to Christians, said one picketer: If this were about anti-Semitism or anti-Muslim, the place would burn to the ground, stated another.

A few supporters among them bore signs spouting It's Satire, Not Satan and Pray for a Sense of Humor, while advocating free speech and freedom for the arts. They were all but drowned out by bagpipes, The Lord's Prayer and other hymns.

So, what was the ruckus all about? Jerry Springer The Opera, a musical riff on the titular Springer and his trashy talk show, has attracted naysayers wherever it has been produced. It's at Beck through to March 27.