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Glorious
Reviewed by Reza Vojdani
International City Theatre
Through Nov. 2
Peter Quilter’s comedy seeks to give us a comedic snapshot into the life of Florence Foster Jenkins, a prominent New York singer and socialite of the early 20th century who’s defining peculiarity is that she is in fact a terrible singer. With such a curious and eccentric historical figure as the focus, the play attempts to grapple with the nature of artistic inspiration and perseverance.
The plot follows Jenkins’s (Eileen Barnett) later life, and the development of her successful yet highly untalented career. Both the play and real life accounts describe her as incapable of keeping tempo, sensing pitch, or sustaining a note, as well as being seemingly oblivious to her lack of musical skill. Unaware of this professional hamartia, pianist Cosmé McMoon (Matthew Wrather) is thrown into the fray when he agrees to become Jenkins’s accompanying pianist, with understandable hijinks ensuing.
From the get-go, Glorious stumbles in maintaining a sense of thematic consistency. The opening scene is a mess of an introductory conversation/interview between Jenkins and Cosmé that drags on, clumsily incorporating exposition and background information without any clear sense of where the story is going. Through the entirety of Act 1, there is little narrative progression, or reason for it, until Jenkins’s performance at a self-organized ball. Also, the lack of character development becomes increasingly evident and glaring, while a good portion of the jokes regularly fall flat.
The show’s failings come from the play’s stylistic schizophrenia: It tries to be comedic yet biographical, the characters are supposed to be farcical yet inspirational. There might be a successful balance to be achieved between these styles, but not here, under Richard Israel’s direction. Additionally, there’s little human point of connection: Jenkins’s eccentricity and ignorance of her lack of talent make her more of a subject for study. Cosmé fails to inspire empathy due because of his recurring need to mention his own apathy and lack of investment in Jenkins’ life, other than for the pay.
Perhaps the most poignant example of the show’s shortcomings come in the final lines, when Cosmé describes Jenkins’ ability to inspire even the “cynical piano player who had come to love her.” The line, if nothing else, was by all means unearned. Though it musters the occasional laugh and a halfhearted moral of Jenkins having inspired others through her unbreakable resolve to sing, Glorious is unable to have the audience hear the music as Jenkins did.
International City Theatre, 300 E Ocean Blvd., Long Beach; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through Nov. 2. https://www.tix2.centerstageticketing.com/sites/internationalcity/showdates.php?s_id=393
