Jerry Springer: The Opera’s savage view of American culture makes The Book of Mormon look about as audacious as a Full House episode, and the cast of Balagan Theatre’s January production took the full measure of the show’s outrage and bile. Most memorably: Brandon Felker as Springer himself in a skillful sendup of the trash-TV host’s faux-paternalism; Kevin Douglass, double-cast as (are you sitting down?) Jesus Christ and a diaper fetishist; and Lindsey Larson, who landed an emotional sucker punch as a stripper selling the hell out of an unexpectedly moving “I Just Wanna Dance.”

balagantheatre.org

Read all of our picks for Arts & Culture, and explore the rest of this year’s edition of Best of Seattle.