Actors Studio brings new life to Florence Foster Jenkins
Buckle up; this may be a rough act to follow. Well, at least for those who have a finely-tuned musical ear, and often shudder at the mis-notes of others.
But, in this true-to-life take on the interesting life of Florence Foster Jenkins, life sometimes does imitate art, or perhaps vice-versa.
Jenkins created a brief career for herself, spawned from her own inflated desires to sing in concert for whoever would care to listen.
A spate of small performances somehow led to producing a record, and then, incredulously to her famous one-woman operatic performance in the esteemed Carnegie Hall.
In the early to mid-1940s she fancied herself an opera singer, a coloratura soprano, with capabilities far exceeding the light-of-day truth. Far exceeding. She was, even to an uncultured ear, very much and always, an off-key singer.
“But, Florence had a legitimate love of music. She was a strong patron of the arts in New York, and had a fantasy life of sorts,” said Eva Cortens, who takes on the task of ‘properly’ singing off key throughout the entire play, Souvenirs, presented by Kelowna Actors Studio.
The two-hander play follows the incredible journey that Jenkins undertakes with her pianist/ composer/ coach/ friend Cosme McMoon, played by Nick Preston.
“Florence couldn’t see her own flaws, she was a very confident woman, and she was insulated and protected from the truth. She lived a fantasy life, and no one was going to stop her from realizing her dream of singing at Carnegie,” Cortens added.
“Cosme tries to be brutally honest with her, but she manages to swindle it around, and really there are a lot of people who have a self-interest in allowing her to go ahead with her fantasies. Even Cosme is, after all, an employee. There’s a paycheque involved.”
The play, told from the perspective of Cosme reminiscing about the events some 18 years after Florence’s’ death, touches on many hilarious and fascinating moments of that fateful performance.
The recent Hollywood version of Florence Foster Jenkins saw Meryl Streep in the lead role, and Simon Helberg from the Big Bang Theory as her pianist. In talk show interviews, Streep admitted learning to sing off-key was a challenge, but a fun challenege.
In her portrayal of the famously offkey chanteuse, Cortens agrees that “keeping it off-key takes some getting used to. My music director (Roslyn Frantz) reprimands me when I slip and sing on key,” she added with a laugh.
“I’m trained as a jazz singer, so to make myself up as a coloratura soprano, well, it’s not that hard to not sing well,” she added. “I hope the audience will see the warmth and bravado in Florence. She did know music — she was a child prodigy on piano.”
Preston, a Vancouver-based actor, musician and writer, who comes to the Actors Studio stage for the first time, noted that “Cosme is a little bewildered by Florence. But he needs a job, he needs the money and that is the start of their relationship.
“Hopefully the audience will see the value in what she did,” he said. “We might laugh at her, but she knew music was to be enjoyed, and Florence knew how to be happy in this world.”
“As Cosme helps Florence follow her dream — from performing in small venues, to recording, to Carnegie Hall— he’s also afraid she’ll be ridiculed, but the people loved her,” Preston said. “Some reviewers said she was a disgrace to music, but Florence said ‘what you hear in your head is important, music is music, it’s to be enjoyed.’”
During her performance career, Jenkins was known to change into numerous selfdesigned and often outrageous costumes, including the one depicted on the posthumously released album The Glory of the Human Voice, where she sports a large pair of angel wings. During another concert, she threw flowers about the stage and when the crowd cheered enthusiastically at the end, she picked up all the petals, and repeated the number.
“We really don’t know if she knew she wasn’t any good, that people protected her from the truth,” Cortens added. “But, she is a delightful character to play. There are some moments of drama, a couple of very moving moments and a lot of laughter.”
Souvenirs, a Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins. presented by Kelowna Actors Studio, with Eva Cortens as Florence and Nick Preston as Cosme McMoon shows May 30-June 16 at Kelowna Actors Studio, 1379 Ellis Street. Tickets are available as dinner and show or show only. In person at Kelowna Tickets in Orchard Park Mall, 250-862-2867, or visit: www.kelownaactorsstudio.ca