Matthew Wrather and Eileen Barnett in ICT’s production of Glorious!
Culture Writer
Who wouldn’t want to see a play about a woman with zero talent who managed to fill Carnegie Hall!..with paying customers, no less?!
Such is Glorious!, the true story of Florence Foster Jenkins, an infectiously happy New York heiress and eccentric who really did sell out Carnegie Hall in 1944, leaving 2,000 would-be concert-goers ticketless and therefore unable to attend her final vocal recital.
Richard Israel directs Peter Quilter’s astonishing stage chronicle for International City Theatre. The factually correct account absolutely stretches credulity. But a simple Google search confirms every significant facet of the play’s narrative. You can even satisfy your doubts by listening to actual performance snippets on Youtube. I did, and I assure you Jenkins was no Susan Boyle.
Portraying the giddy Jenkins with energy and warmth is actress Eileen Barnett, who sports an impressive resume of Broadway and Los Angeles musical theater credits. I would love to ask her what it’s like to spend an entire show intentionally breaking every rule enforced by voice teachers, and then some.
I am reminded of an old Harry Chapin song about a fictional midwestern tailor named Mr. Tanner who sings in his shop late at night when no one’s around. His friends urge him to give a concert. He finally relents and performs in the town auditorium. But the critics weren’t kind with regard to the man’s one-trick-pony performance that didn’t keep them interested for the entire two hours. I imagine Jenkins’s critics were far, far less forgiving still.
Suffice it to say, as audience members, we are grateful Jenkins’s solos throughout the play are mercifully brief and that we are assuaged with beautiful operatic recordings during each of the performance’s several scene changes.
Actor and accomplished pianist Matthew Wrather plays Cosme McMoon, the witty young man who responds to Jenkins’ advertisement for an accompanist. It takes all of 5 to 10 seconds of Jenkins’ singing to send him heading for her Manhattan apartment’s exit, but her offer to pay him handsomely persuades him to reconsider. It is Jenkins’s innocence, kindness and endearing character that wins his real friendship and loyalty over time.
Leland Crooke plays Jenkins’s adoring British life-long companion St. Clair. Crooke keeps us guessing throughout the performance as to whether or not his character truly believes in Jenkins’s talent, or simply supports his beloved’s fondest dream.
It’s pretty much the same story with Jenkins’s devoted friend Dorothy (Janellen Steininger), whose ailing dog’s demise and funeral receive an entire scene in the second act.
Carol Abney delivers the dual roles of two “dismal Ginnies” — beleaguered housekeeper Maria and the rigid and uncharitable Mrs. Verrinder-Gedge, who represents the humorless types among the local citizenry who believe government action should intervene to put a stop to Jenkins’s public performances.
As much as I wanted to love this play for the sheer humanity of it, I had shifted by the end of the first act. Suddenly Jenkins seemed self-indulgent and narcissistic. Where I began with a willingness to wholly appreciate her commitment to fulfilling a dream— indeed, an ultra-ambitious item atop an otherwise common woman’s bucket list— she was now merely oblivious to the sensibilities of others and utterly manipulative in her pursuit of admiration and applause where none was deserved.
Again, I am reminded of another character— Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced “bouquet” ) of the popular Brit-com Keeping Up Appearances. If ever there was a woman confident in her every imagined perfection, when in fact no one could stand her, it is Hyacinth. By contrast, Jenkins is truly loved, but she matches Hyacinth dollar for dollar in her extraordinary ability to believe in her own non-existent talent in the face of the persistent guffaws of her audiences.
But the second act, with its focus on Jenkins’s willingness to risk her entire fortune, including her home, to have her Carnegie Hall recital come to fruition, made her more admirable again. It was better late than never that she finally had some skin in the game. It made her seem real, less larger-than-life, more courageous.
In the end, Glorious! has one immutably stunning thing going for it. It is one of the most unbelievable stories you will ever hear.
Glorious! continues at International City Theatre through Nov. 2. Tickets are $47 for Friday and Saturday evening performances and for Sunday matinees, $42 for Thursday evening performances. Evening performances are at 8pm; Sunday matinees are at 2pm. ICT is located in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center at 300 East Ocean Blvd. Call (562) 436-4610 for reservations and information. Tickets are also available online at InternationalCityTheatre.org .
