Tonight brought a special treat, somewhat off my usually beaten path: a preview performance of Souvenir, Stephen Temperley's two-character, two-act play about the legendarily off-key society warbler Florence Foster Jenkins. The show was generally well received, and Judy Kaye's portrayal of Jenkins roundly lauded, in an initial run late last year, which I didn't see. (My former TONY comrade Jason Zinoman's New York Times review is here, while the reaction of my current TONY ally, the fabulous Adam Feldman, can be found here.)
The play opens in a Greenwich Village piano bar, where Cosme McMoon, a washed-up cocktail tinkler, reminisces about his "glory" days accompanying Ms. Jenkins's benighted follies. The main sticking point most critics had with the original production was the portrayal of McMoon by a veteran Broadway music director who was a fine pianist but apparently a sub-par actor. That's certainly not the case with Donald Corren, who portrays McMoon's turn from embarassment and anxiety to deep affection with genuine aplomb. Observing and interacting with Jenkins, McMoon grapples with essential questions of worth, delusion and valor much as any stifled creator might.
For her part, Jenkins -- according to Temperley -- seems to have rarely if ever questioned the validity of her performances. Time after time, she reiterates a fundamental faith in her art and the transcendent power of music. And in this role, Kaye simply slays. True, this fine singer and comedic actor delivers a tour de force of miraculously awful singing. (The short, sweet cameos of Jenkins's infamous Carnegie Hall recital, a benefit for the war effort, are utterly howl-inducing.) But Kaye also limns this quixotic "career" with an utterly winning depth of character that tends to crop up both when you least and most expect it. And like Quixote, Jenkins accrues a hard-won dignity despite her utter lack of eptitude.
The ending, which I wouldn't conceive of revealing, is perhaps obvious in retrospect. But I freely admit that I didn't see it coming, and it well and truly misted me up. While I hate to sound like a pitchman, I can't imagine any lover of fine song and opera not being completely captivated by this show, and I plan to see it again later in what I hope will be a long and healthy run.
Added to the blogroll: the lucid opera blog An Unamplified Voice, and Felsenmusick, busy composer-critic Daniel Felsenfeld's new online bulwark against the advancing hordes of pop cultcha. (But watch out, Danny, or Picker is gonna gently smack you for not acknowledging his second opera, the as-yet-unrecorded Fantastic Mr. Fox...)
Playlist:
Alberto Ginastera - Estancia; Harp Concerto*; Glosses; Panambi - Isabelle Moretti*, Orchestra National de Lyon/David Robertson (Naive)
Pierre Boulez - Rituel in memoriam Maderna; Notations I-IV, VII; Figures-Doubles-Prismes - Orchestre National de Lyon/David Robertson (Naive)
Valentin Silvestrov - Symphony No. 5; Postludium* - Alexei Lubimov*, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/David Robertson (Sony Classical)
Shakira - Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 (Epic)
Ernst Krenek - String Quartets Nos. 5 & 8 - Sonare Quartett (MD+G)
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