Do you know someone who truly believes they have a great talent when in reality they are woefully deficient?  Have you told them the truth or simply maintained the lie to spare their feelings?

 

Maybe it's cooking.  Maybe it's writing.  Maybe it's telling jokes.  Maybe they insist they have a green thumb, while you glance around and see all the dead plants in their yard.  In the case of society matron Florence Foster Jenkins it was singing.

 

Hailing from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, she had always yearned for a music career, and after she received a sizeable inheritance from her father's death, Mrs. Jenkins set about making her dream a reality.  (Mr. Foster had made it abundantly clear that she was not to sing in public during his lifetime.)  So starting in 1912, she slowly became a musical sensation -- in spite of the fact that she was tone deaf, couldn't carry a tune and butchered the  mother tongues of her favorite operatic songs.

 

Insisting she was one of the few blessed with truly perfect pitch and a coloratura soprano, she literally stunned audiences with her self-produced performances.  These events she first shared with friends and then as demand grew opened to the general public.  Along the way to becoming famous for having no talent, she had a wonderful time, enjoyed herself immensely, and raised large sums of money for charity. 

 

And her audiences?  They were filled with laughter.  In fact, it was not uncommon for her fans  to put their faces into their handkerchiefs to hide their guffaws -- a gesture which she took to mean that they were overcome with tears by the sweet music of her voice.  They were in tears, but it was because they were laughing so hard and trying to muffle the sounds of their mirth.  And their applause was thunderous -- partly to drown out their laughter so she wouldn't hear it, but also because they truly enjoyed her eccentric performances which were not so much recitals but spectacles.  Held at the Ritz-Carlton ballroom her vocal outings included outlandish costume changes, dancing, audience interaction, props and melodramatic delivery.  The horrific vocals were just icing on the cake in a recital where the singer might appear wearing angel wings or dressed as a Spanish peasant doing flamenco dancing and throwing roses to the crowd.

 

And her gusto for song and the sincerity with which she threw herself into her calling kept her audiences coming back for more, year after year.  Which means she gave them something greater than a novelty act.  At some level she must have oddly inspired them.  Whether due to her undiminished sincerity or via her gleeful delivery, her fans became protective of her.  Even famous opera singers applauded her.  And so she seems to have created a protective cocoon around herself as she delivered a message that doing what you dream of doing is the only way to actually live your life.

 

It's from this inspiring aspect of her character that Stephen Temperley's Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins derives its energy.  Because Mrs. Jenkins' life is so oddly remiss in factual details, Mr. Temperley bills his work as a fantasy on a true story.  He focuses on the premise of how a tone death soul who sincerely believed she possessed a wonderful vocal sensibility could change our attitudes about how things "should be."

 

Repeatedly she advises her accompanist Cosme McMoon to not let other people define his talents or abilities, and thus his identity.  She tells him too much self-doubt can be just as debilitating as too much self-confidence.  And so over the course of their twelve years together, Mr. McMoon moves from being appalled by her vocal techniques to being in awe of her ability to worry less about external validation and more about what she herself wanted to accomplish.  He recognizes that her font of self-assurance is her greatest asset, one that he has problems maintaining as his songwriting career dead ends.  As he says in Act II, "What's really important is what you hear in your head."  While he is speaking about how Mrs. Jenkins heard a beautiful soprano when she sang, he is also referring to her inner ability to throw out criticism and focus on her own mantra of encouragement.  As she told a friend, "Some may say that I couldn't sing, but no one can say that I didn't sing."

 

So when we think of all the people who won't sing, or dance or even try something new because they fear being ridiculed or looking foolish, then Mrs. Jenkins' true gift in inspiring her audiences becomes clear.  It's a voice that's singing "Allow yourselves to be freer and enjoy what you want to do -- irregardless of whether you have talent or not."  And this message of gleeful abandon may be why there is still -- 65 years after her death -- a cult following with a huge Internet presence, CDs of her songs still in circulation and also why Mr. Temperley's play is currently one  of the most produced pieces around the globe.

 

The action of Souvenir is set in 1964 (22 years after Mrs. Jenkins' death) as McMoon shares his adventures with the singing sensation.  It's through this narration of Cosme's memories that Madame Jenkins moves from historic oddity to cultural phenomenon.  And it's through how Cosme changes over the course of their working relationship that brings a new level of humanity to this cultural phenomenon who it's so easy to scoff at with derision.

 

While many think she was a shrewd carny who loved the attention and was in on the joke the entire time; Mr. Temperley comes from the perspective that she was a gentle woman who sincerely thought she could sing and move people to hysterics through her voice.  (Much like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley or The Beetles.)  And since she had the money to make it happen, she simply set about doing what she always dreamed of doing -- giving recitals to live audiences.

 

For Mr. McMoon's part, Mr. Temperley has him trying to protect Madame Flo as best he can and to guide her in trying to improve her voice over the course of their daily rehearsal schedule.  Something he admits never happened even with all the hours of practice which they undertook six months a year.

 

CENTERSTAGE's production of Souvenirs is a remount of the 2005 Broadway production, which has just come from a four week run at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater.  It's the same director, cast and sets; so area audiences have an opportunity to see a Broadway show right in their own back yards.

 

Director Vivian Matalon uses a deft hand to keep things from sliding into one dimensional shtick.  Singing badly is harder than you might think -- Judy Kaye who plays Florence is a trained opera singer.  In less capable hands the role could become sheer camp where the character loses her humanity.  However, Ms. Kaye is always believable as a guileless woman who is true to her word and simply wants to do the one thing that her family forbade her from doing.

 

For his part, Donald Corren's Cosme McMoon is a dapper gay gent who moves from a young man simply taking a gig to make the rent money to a caring friend who ends up actually enjoying Mrs. Jenkins' singing.

 

The rapport between Ms. Kaye and Mr. Corren is intimate and playful.  She seemingly has no clue he is gay, he has no need to explain it to her.  She refers to him as "dear heart" and "you naughty boy;" he calls her "Madame Flo."  While she is indomitable in achieving what she wants with no talent, he is facing the reality that his songwriting may not be much better than her singing.  When she says "I'm not sure, but I think there is a place where it goes awry" and then suggests it might be from the piano playing, the scene is priceless.  And when he says she had "an eccentric lack of perspective," the understatement is hilarious.

 

Act One focuses on the first years of their relationship, while the second act preps us for the memorable Carnegie Hall recital.  It's during this act when we see Mrs. Jenkins in performance -- complete with the outlandish costumes, the over the top delivery and occasional stops to wave to the audience -- that we can fully understand her audience appeal.  The singing might be bad, but we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves.  She's become the eccentric aunt who entertains at family reunions -- the one the rest of the family would viciously protect if any outsider criticized her.  In fact, in an odd way, Madame Jenkins seems to have been offering performance art long before the term came into existence.

 

One difference from the New York production is the removal of the musical number Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition from the second act.  Both Ms. Kaye and Mr. Corren say the number was removed to tighten things up and to shorten the second act.

 

R. Michael Miller's set is a drawing room that becomes a rehearsal room or recital hall with just the addition of a chaise or chair.  A view of the New York City skyline (done in an art deco manner) can be seen through the large window.  The cutout style buildings add to the fairytale aspect of this story of a young girl who eventually achieves her musical dreams -- even if she couldn't sing a note.

 

Mr. Temperley has created a finely tuned show, which is a love letter to a woman who's Carnegie Hall recital turned away 2,000 ticket buyers.  A concert where scalpers were charging $20 for $2.40 tickets.  And who, a month after her appearance, died of a heart attack in a music store selecting the tunes for her next recital.  He lovingly wraps up our time with these two enjoyably wacky people with a delightful song to help us understand what Florence Foster Jenkins must have been hearing in her head throughout all those recitals.

 

This is definitely a show worth seeking out.  And it's gentle ending is so sweet that it makes you want to start singing -- perhaps that's why the audience gave it a standing ovation.

 

Past articles on Lady Flo
Notes of Florence Foster Jenkins
The Glory??? of the Human Voice
Murder on the High C's
Der Hölle Rache
Documentary -- Florence Foster Jenkins: A World of Her Own
The Artist's Way -- for pursuing your own creative endeavor
 

Written by: Stephen Temperley

Produced by: CENTERSTAGE
at CENTERSTAGE's Pearlstone Theater, 700 North Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD

 

Run Dates: April 24-May 24, 2009

Showtimes: Tuesdays & Wednesdays at 8 pm, Thursdays at 7 pm, Fridays at 8 pm,Saturdays at 2 pm & 8 pm, Sundays at 2 pm & 7.30 pm (

Ticket Prices: $10-$60

Box Office: 410/332-0033 or online

Show Length: 2 hours and 30 minutes including one 15 minute intermission

 

Director: Vivian Matalon

Designers: R. Michael Miller (Set),  Ann G. Wrightson (Lighting), Tracy Christensen (Costume) and David Budries (Sound)

Cast: Judy Kaye and Donald Corren