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Photo Susan Grilli
Mary Abt and John Thomas in Stephen Temperley’s “Souvenir.” |
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Off-key musical hits the right notes for success
By Sue Harrison
Banner Staff
How can something so wrong be so right? No, not a tawdry backstreet love story but an out-of-key musical, “Souvenir,” that manages to miss hitting almost every note and yet still entertains and ultimately asks a few gentle questions about the meaning of art.
“Souvenir” looks at the real-life story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a vocally challenged would-be diva from the 1930s and ‘40s who, through sheer chutzpah, managed to sell out Carnegie Hall. The play follows her rise from small salons to the big stage and is told through the recollections of her accompanist, Cosme McMoon, a man who heard her every wrong intonation, was horrified by her lack of singing ability, and yet stayed with her for 12 years.
As a reviewer I was nervous going to see a musical play about a woman who couldn’t sing. But, no need to worry. The dialogue is bright and quick, the singing flat, sharp and just plain wrong, but somehow it all mixes together to make up two charming and entertaining acts.
The play opens 20 years after her death back in 1944. McMoon, playing in a lounge somewhere, starts to reminisce about his years with her.
Played by an almost unrecognizable John Thomas, McMoon is a droll pianist-composer in his late 20s when the well-to-do Mrs. Foster Jenkins finds him. She wants to hire him to play for her private recitals at the Ritz, and even though he is appalled at her lack of talent he needs the money badly enough to sign on.
Much of what happens in the play are his patient but strained attempts to get her on-note and her gentle chiding of him for failing to be able to play the notes correctly despite the fact that he is spot on. And he realizes early on that she does not hear herself, only the beautiful sounds in her head that unfortunately cannot seem to escape her lips.
“When you sing, you are like a prize fighter, you take a deep breath and go,” he says by way of explanation about how singing may wind up more street brawl than ethereal fancy.
When urged by him to reach for the real notes, she dismisses his concerns. “What matters most is the music you hear in your head,” she says, adding, “my friends compliment me in my depth of feeling.” And later she tells him that nothing is more detrimental to music than accuracy and suggests the notes the composer left on the page were merely signposts left for the singer.
For years she has sung at small gatherings, and her friends — whether through perversity or kindness — have encouraged her to continue and even to move to a private recital room at the Ritz to accommodate more “fans.”
She moves on to the Ritz, makes a few records and winds up at Carnegie Hall, without ever singing in tune.
The crowds are huge. The records sell well. Is it because the audiences find her so funny and so awful? Will she ever realize they are making fun of her, not admiring her? How can she not be aware of how awful she sounds and how she brings her fans not joy but base amusement? And ultimately, does it matter or change her belief in the beauty of what she hears?
“Singing is like dreaming in public, but are we headed for a nightmare?” McMoon asks at one point.
In addition to his usual verve at the piano and some quite nice vocal turns, Thomas shows a good sense of comic timing as he provides the foil to his patron’s musical malapropisms.
But it is Mary Abt as Florence Foster Jenkins who owns the stage. A terrific singer in real life, Abt throws it all aside to open up, wail and hit painful notes all night.
The Provincetown audience, like Florence Jenkins’ remembered audiences that are sometimes heard in backdrop soundtracks, laughed, howled, clapped, cheered and slapped their knees during and after all the songs. Abt was delicious in her spirited but deliberately flawed performances, and when she stopped singing her acting was so nuanced, her persona carried such gravitas that she was at times breathtaking.
The contrast of her histrionic vocalizations with her stage-filling presence brought depth to the show and kept the audience thoroughly engaged from the first laugh to the standing ovation at the show’s end.
Special praise to costumer Ray Lajoie for his many inspired period-piece dresses and costumes worn by Abt. Lighting and sets promoted the mood well and sound — off-key and all — was clear and well presented.
Susan Grilli directs and gets impressive first-time dramatic performances from Thomas and Abt. This finishes out the first winter season for Counter Productions and leads to hopes for more from this new company.
Souvenir, presented by Counter Productions, performances are 7:30 pm Thurs.-Sun. through May 11, Provincetown Theater, 238 Bradford St. Tickets $18-$22, (508) 487-7487.
artseditor@provincetownbanner.com
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May 8th, 2008