Off-key humor key in ‘Souvenir’
“Souvenir” is based on the true story of a woman who considered herself the greatest diva of her age, Florence Foster Jenkins.
The only problem: She couldn’t sing a note.
“It’s not just that she wasn’t very good,” said Michael Weaver, who is directing this comedy at the Actor’s Repertory Theatre. “She couldn’t sing at all.”
According to most accounts, Jenkins suffered from an almost total lack of rhythm, pitch and tone. She was, in essence, the William Hung of her time.
Yet she sang at Carnegie Hall in 1944, because she was, well, rich. She attracted crowds to her recitals – but most of them were there to laugh at her.
Her “career” has been an object of fascination ever since. How did she so successfully deceive herself about her talents? Or was it all just a lifelong, elaborate joke?
“Souvenir,” by Stephen Temperly, tackles the story mainly as a comedy – but a comedy with substance.
“It’s about art and about trying to become an artist,” said Weaver. “It’s about trying to fulfill what you think is your destiny.
”(Jenkins) once said, ‘People can say I can’t sing, but they can’t say I didn’t sing.’ We all have our blind spots.”
Weaver said the script is extremely funny and raises the same question as her entire career: Why would she invite such derision?
“People would laugh hysterically at her concerts,” said Weaver. “The story is that Tallulah Bankhead laughed so hard she had to be carried out of her box at the theater.”
“Souvenir” began as an off-Broadway production in 2004 and moved to Broadway in 2005 with Judy Kaye in the main role. She scored a Tony nomination for her well-received portrayal.
Ben Brantley of The New York Times said the production evoked “an amused but sincere admiration for the valiant excesses of women who refuse to accept their limitations, whether of old age, ugliness or, in Mrs. Jenkins’ case, unconditional tone deafness.”
Karen Nelsen, the Seattle actress who just completed a stunning run as Mary Tyrone in ARt’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” will play Jenkins.
The only other role in the show is that of her longtime accompanist, Cosme McMoon. It will be played by Seattle actor Mark Rabe, a veteran of the Seattle Repertory Theatre and the Seattle Civic Light Opera.
The show contains some music – there’s no other way to capture Jenkins’, umm, artistry. Yet it is not what you would call a musical.
Brantley said that even when you know what’s coming, that “first squawk is still a shocker.”