Have you ever been assailed by a volley of screeches emanating from a singer whose none-too accurate sense of pitch and tone has left you cringing? Your initial reaction would probably be "Sadly, yes; we've all been to a karaoke night at the local..." Not so for the audience of Florence Foster Jenkins, an American soprano whose voice was said to shatter glass - and it wasn't a party trick. Florence considered herself to be a singer manqué in her youth, having been prevented from training and performing by her family. However her father left her enough money in his will to allow her to take lessons and at the mature age of 44 she began a singing career spanning 32 years. The very real life of possibly the worst soprano ever to have lived and performed has been the subject of three plays, the latest being Peter Quilter's humorous take on Florence's last years. Glorious!, an MADC production, directed by Coryse Borg is currently showing at the Manoel Theatre and I had the pleasure of watching and (wince, wince...) hearing the play.
Theatre has come a long way since the days when you were greeted by a closed curtain waiting to announce a grand opening. I had ample time to observe Harry Borg's terrific set before the start of the show and he has, as always, done an excellent job at creating the ideal adaptable set. The columns and apartment windows in the background were enhanced by the great directorial idea of having a projector screen behind the central window, which was drawn up to the gods whenever authentic 1940s footage was shown for the purposes of setting the scene. The New York skyline in black and white gave the stage a vast sense of space stretching out into the city, which contrasted very well with the rather cluttered interior of Florence's apartment. Perhaps the most eye-catching part of the set was the seating area, where an eclectic collection of chairs was grouped around a small coffee table. The latter, together with some over-the-top costumes designed by Martin Azzopardi, truly reflected Florence's flamboyant theatricality and shows just how much the ordinary may be masked by the excessive.
It was an excellent choice on the director's part to cast Marylu Coppini in the main role. Ms Coppini's performance was spot on. She never fails to deliver delightfully entertaining performances especially in such character roles. She has once again captured the essence of a determined and self-confident woman, whose love for music and commitment to the art of vocal performance blinds her to the fact that she is not quite the star she thinks she is. With a widely befuddled sense of musicality and a firm belief that her audience found her performances pleasing, Florence battled bravely on, finally achieving her moment of triumph when she was asked to perform at Carnegie Hall just weeks before her death. The poignancy within this play is perhaps the fact that Florence firmly believed in herself and that she put her critics' scathing remarks and jeers down to jealousy rather than accepting that there's no smoke without fire and realising that there was a problem with her singing. And just how bad is bad? Let's just say that Ms Coppini's performance had the audience in fits - much like Florence's own performances which garnered a following and gained notoriety if not popularity because people were curious to find out for themselves how terrible her singing was. The play itself showcases a few songs, with Adele's Laughing Song from Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus having been the height (if you'll excuse the pun) of fun - Ms Coppini belted it out with great gusto and certainly made me laugh no end, although I did fear for the Manoel's chandelier!
Florence's accompanist was Cosmé McMoon, played very ably by Mikhail Basmadjian, who revealed another side of his multi-talented persona - the fact that he's a pretty good pianist. Mr Basmadjian gave us an earnest young pianist whose enduring patience and amusement at Florence's antics, as well as his dubious sexual preferences, had to be kept secret from the rather curious singer. Colin Willis and Nanette Brimmer complete Florence's inner circle, playing partner and manager St Clair Byfield and best friend Dorothy respectively. Mr Willis's pompous and self-possessed St Clair was played with a non-chalance which exposed the character's myopic point of view and rather mercenary aims quite well, while Ms Brimmer portrayed Dorothy in an uncannily accurate study of a rather sad and lonely woman whose devotion to her pet dog is almost as great as her devotion to Florence. Airs and graces and society dos for charity are the fuel which keeps her going, and Ms Brimmer gives us a ridiculous yet endearing woman at once to pity and poke fun at. I must say that the ladies in this play, with Ms Coppini at the helm, rather stole the show. Paula Fleri-Soler's Maria, the Mexican maid was hilariously funny, delivering her deliberately unintelligible lines in Spanish with a sense of tone and rhythm which could have taught her mistress a thing or two. Ms Fleri-Soler's comic timing was just right as was that of Simone Pavlides, who played the indignant music lover Mrs Johnson, who shocks Florence by storming in during a concert and publicly embarrassing her, while telling her in no uncertain terms that her singing was a complete disaster. Ms Pavlides's part may have been a short one but it brought the stage to life and the ensuing conflict between the singer and Mrs Johnson was terrific fun to watch.
The performance did at times seem to suffer from a slight dragging effect between the more fast-paced scenes, but then again, it could easily be interpreted as yet another exponent of Florence's complete lack of rhythm. Whichever way you look at it, Glorious! is a good piece of light entertainment and is on tonight and tomorrow at the Manoel Theatre.
Theatre has come a long way since the days when you were greeted by a closed curtain waiting to announce a grand opening. I had ample time to observe Harry Borg's terrific set before the start of the show and he has, as always, done an excellent job at creating the ideal adaptable set. The columns and apartment windows in the background were enhanced by the great directorial idea of having a projector screen behind the central window, which was drawn up to the gods whenever authentic 1940s footage was shown for the purposes of setting the scene. The New York skyline in black and white gave the stage a vast sense of space stretching out into the city, which contrasted very well with the rather cluttered interior of Florence's apartment. Perhaps the most eye-catching part of the set was the seating area, where an eclectic collection of chairs was grouped around a small coffee table. The latter, together with some over-the-top costumes designed by Martin Azzopardi, truly reflected Florence's flamboyant theatricality and shows just how much the ordinary may be masked by the excessive.
It was an excellent choice on the director's part to cast Marylu Coppini in the main role. Ms Coppini's performance was spot on. She never fails to deliver delightfully entertaining performances especially in such character roles. She has once again captured the essence of a determined and self-confident woman, whose love for music and commitment to the art of vocal performance blinds her to the fact that she is not quite the star she thinks she is. With a widely befuddled sense of musicality and a firm belief that her audience found her performances pleasing, Florence battled bravely on, finally achieving her moment of triumph when she was asked to perform at Carnegie Hall just weeks before her death. The poignancy within this play is perhaps the fact that Florence firmly believed in herself and that she put her critics' scathing remarks and jeers down to jealousy rather than accepting that there's no smoke without fire and realising that there was a problem with her singing. And just how bad is bad? Let's just say that Ms Coppini's performance had the audience in fits - much like Florence's own performances which garnered a following and gained notoriety if not popularity because people were curious to find out for themselves how terrible her singing was. The play itself showcases a few songs, with Adele's Laughing Song from Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus having been the height (if you'll excuse the pun) of fun - Ms Coppini belted it out with great gusto and certainly made me laugh no end, although I did fear for the Manoel's chandelier!
Florence's accompanist was Cosmé McMoon, played very ably by Mikhail Basmadjian, who revealed another side of his multi-talented persona - the fact that he's a pretty good pianist. Mr Basmadjian gave us an earnest young pianist whose enduring patience and amusement at Florence's antics, as well as his dubious sexual preferences, had to be kept secret from the rather curious singer. Colin Willis and Nanette Brimmer complete Florence's inner circle, playing partner and manager St Clair Byfield and best friend Dorothy respectively. Mr Willis's pompous and self-possessed St Clair was played with a non-chalance which exposed the character's myopic point of view and rather mercenary aims quite well, while Ms Brimmer portrayed Dorothy in an uncannily accurate study of a rather sad and lonely woman whose devotion to her pet dog is almost as great as her devotion to Florence. Airs and graces and society dos for charity are the fuel which keeps her going, and Ms Brimmer gives us a ridiculous yet endearing woman at once to pity and poke fun at. I must say that the ladies in this play, with Ms Coppini at the helm, rather stole the show. Paula Fleri-Soler's Maria, the Mexican maid was hilariously funny, delivering her deliberately unintelligible lines in Spanish with a sense of tone and rhythm which could have taught her mistress a thing or two. Ms Fleri-Soler's comic timing was just right as was that of Simone Pavlides, who played the indignant music lover Mrs Johnson, who shocks Florence by storming in during a concert and publicly embarrassing her, while telling her in no uncertain terms that her singing was a complete disaster. Ms Pavlides's part may have been a short one but it brought the stage to life and the ensuing conflict between the singer and Mrs Johnson was terrific fun to watch.
The performance did at times seem to suffer from a slight dragging effect between the more fast-paced scenes, but then again, it could easily be interpreted as yet another exponent of Florence's complete lack of rhythm. Whichever way you look at it, Glorious! is a good piece of light entertainment and is on tonight and tomorrow at the Manoel Theatre.