Richard Thomas is a British musician, writer, and comedy actor born in 1964. He is most renowned for composing and scoring the award-winning Jerry Springer: The Opera alongside Stewart Lee, for which he received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Musical Score in 2004.
Thomas initiated his comedy career in 1987, performing a musical act on keyboards. In 2000, he penned and performed a one-act opera called Tourette's Diva, featuring four actors, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. During this time, Thomas conceived the idea for an opera based on Jerry Springer, subsequently dedicating the next two years to writing it, primarily through workshops at Battersea Arts Centre.
Thomas would often offer a "Beer for an Idea," where audience members providing valuable suggestions would receive a can of Foster's, while those submitting poor ideas would receive a supermarket store brand. Following several small-scale performances of the first act, which remained largely unchanged, the second act (where characters descend into hell) was initially vague and unformed. Thomas subsequently collaborated with his friend Stewart Lee to assist with the writing, and six months later, the opera took shape, eventually being acquired by the National Theatre.
In addition to his work on Jerry Springer: The Opera, Thomas has contributed to various BBC comedy shows, including Attention Scum and This Morning with Richard Not Judy. His latest series, Kombat Opera, premiered on BBC Two on February 25, 2007, comprising five standalone musical parodies of well-known television programs.
Furthermore, Thomas wrote the libretto for Mark-Anthony Turnage's 2011 opera Anna Nicole, and co-wrote music for the 2010 film Uncle David as part of the Avant-Garde Alliance.
