Theater Review—

‘Souvenir’ A Splendid Piece of Theater

By Julie Stern

HARTFORD — Early into the first act of Stephen Temperley’s Souvenir, my friend leaned over and whispered, “Do you think a person has to actually be very talented in order to sing this badly?”

Florence Foster Jenkins was a real person. A very rich, very deluded woman from Pittsburgh, who settled in New York and proceeded to launch  her own career as a soprano soloist, despite the fact that she could not sing. Her shrieks, whoops, and decidedly off key notes  bring to mind one of those old Bugs Bunny cartoons  in which a bosomy coloratura inflicts ear-splitting “opera” on a reluctant rabbit.

By the time of her death in 1944, Florence had gained enormous fame because of a unique combination of qualities: she had an absolutely dreadful voice, an unshakeable conviction that she was a uniquely gifted singer, and enough money inherited from her wealthy father to finance her concert career, buoyed by the happy misapprehension that the crowds who flocked to hear her, did so out of genuine appreciation of her abilities.

To see Souvenir is like attending one of Florence’s actual concerts, in that you see her exposed in all her misadvised glory. As such, we, the audience, play our own role in the show: Are we there simply to laugh at the spectacle (as the crowds did, during the heyday of her orbit, although they generally stuffed their handkerchiefs in their mouths to spare her feelings), or is there some deeper lesson to be drawn, some insight into the nature of art, or perhaps into ourselves?

Under the direction of Michael Even Haney,  the current Hartford TheaterWorks production aims for the more ambitious interpretation, and it succeeds beautifully. While there are laughs a plenty, there is also a wistful and reflective undertone that transcends the silliness.

Temperley’s play offers a portrait of Florence as shaped by the memories of Cosme McMoon, a struggling pianist-composer who took on the job in order to pay the rent, and ended up spending 12 years as her accompanist and confidante.

Neva Rae Powers is hilarious in the way she combines the benevolent condescension of a self-anointed grande dame, with the capacity to emit ear-splitting shrieks and painfully sour notes. Edwin Cahill conveys the rueful embarrassment of a man who does not want his friends to see him doing this in public, but whose grudging affection for his employer, and pity for her delusion, keep him by her side.

Cahill also brings depth to Cosme’s character, as he sits noodling on a lonely piano, remembering Florence and speaking directly to the audience in an effort to explain the phenomenon she represented, and to articulate his own connection to her. As one of many young hopefuls who arrived in New York dreaming of finding success, but never selling a single song, Cosme sees himself as a kind of shadow personality to his employer.

Who is he to question her resolute pursuit of what she believes to be beauty? Are the musical visions in his head any purer or nobler than the ones that motivate her?

While the play conveys graphically just how badly Florence managed to butcher the arias she sang, it also captures her genuine love of music. The melodies in her head which inspired her to want to sing were truly beautiful. She just couldn’t hear what she actually sounded like, and was fixed in her belief that she was a great talent.

Even as we laugh uproariously, the play is not simply a cheap shot taken at the expense of a pathetically misguided fool. Rather, it is an exploration of how all of us delude ourselves to some extent, as well as a celebration of the joy of doing what you love.

Fittingly, it closes with an answer to my friend’s question, as Ms Powers — a celebrated musician in her own right — gives a rendition of Ave Maria as Florence heard it.

Souvenir is a splendid piece of theater, well deserving of the Kevin Kline Awards which it swept for this production. One added note is Theresa Hams wonderful costumes (which manage to be both gorgeous and ridiculous) and Fitz Patton’s sound design,  which reproduces the pandemonium that occurred at Florence’s 1944 Carnegie Hall concert.

(Performances continue Tuesday through Saturday evenings, and with weekend matinees, until May 21.

Contact the theater at 860-527-7838 or TheaterWorksHartford.org for curtain and tickets details or reservations.)