Richard Thomas (born 1964) is a British musician, writer, and comedy actor. He is best known for composing, writing and scoring the award-winning '' Jerry Springer: The Opera'' with book and additional lyrics co-written with Stewart Lee. Thomas collected the

Laurence Olivier Award The Laurence Olivier Awards, or simply the Olivier Awards, are presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre in London at an annual ceremony in the capital. The awards were originally known as ...

for Best Musical Score in 2004. Richard Thomas's comedy career began in 1987, doing a musical act on keyboards. In 2000, he wrote and performed a one-act opera called ''Tourette's Diva'' with four actors, which aired at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

. Thomas had the idea for an opera based on Jerry Springer at this time, and wrote it over the next two years, chiefly in workshops at

Battersea Arts Centre The Battersea Arts Centre ("BAC") is a performance space specialising in theatre productions. Located near Clapham Junction railway station in Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, it was formerly Battersea Town Hall. It is a Grade ...

. Thomas would offer a "Beer for an Idea", where any audience members submitting a good idea would be rewarded with a can of Foster's and poor ideas with a supermarket store brand. After a number of small scale performances of the first act, which was in much the same shape as it remains today, the second act (where the characters descend into

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

) was vague and unformed. Thomas brought his friend Stewart Lee in to assist with the writing. Six months later, the opera was in a far more recognisable state, and was snapped up by the National Theatre. Thomas has also worked on

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

comedy shows such as ''

Attention Scum ''Attention Scum'' was a 2001 television comedy series created by Simon Munnery and Stewart Lee. It starred Munnery as his "League Against Tedium" character and contained acerbic stand-up routines atop a transit van and sketches including mainsta ...

'' and ''

This Morning with Richard Not Judy ''This Morning With Richard Not Judy'' or ''TMWRNJ'' Richard Herring would routinely pronounce the acronym as if the 'M' and 'W' had changed places (TWMRNJ) rather than pronouncing it as is a BBC comedy television programme, written by and starr ...

''. Starting on 25 February 2007,

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

aired his series, ''

Kombat Opera Presents ''Kombat Opera Presents'' is a BBC2 comedy show. The comedy parodies British television programmes by transforming them into operas. The music for the series was written by Richard Thomas, with the series having its origins in the ''Kombat Opera' ...

...'', comprising five standalone musical parodies of well-known television programmes. Thomas wrote the

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

for Mark-Anthony Turnage's 2011 opera '' Anna Nicole'', and co-wrote music for the 2010 film '' Uncle David'' as a part of the Avant-Garde Alliance. In 2013 Thomas was commissioned by London's

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

choir

The Pink Singers The Pink Singers were formed on 7 April 1983, making the ''Pinkies'' the longest-running LGBT choir in Europe. Introduction Originally formed as a small all male ensemble after an open newspaper invite, the Pink Singers has grown over the pas ...

, to bring his humor to writing a piece celebrating the styles and techniques employed by a choir during performances. The Pink Singers performed the première of the resulting two pieces during their 30th anniversary concert at the Troxy Theatre, London. In 2014 he wrote the lyrics for the stage musical of ''Made in Dagenham''.

Works

Theatre / Opera

Tourette's Diva Tourette syndrome or Tourette's syndrome (abbreviated as TS or Tourette's) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that begins in childhood or adolescence. It is characterized by multiple movement (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) ...

(2000), music and lyrics * Jerry Springer: The Opera (2001), music and lyrics * Anna Nicole (2011), libretto * the stage musical of ''Made in Dagenham'' (2014), lyrics

Film / Television

... (2007)

References

External links

Official websiteInterview with Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Richard 1964 births British male actors English classical composers English male classical composers English male dramatists and playwrights English opera composers Male opera composers English opera librettists English gay actors LGBT musicians from the United Kingdom Living people English gay writers 21st-century British composers 21st-century British male musicians