The heart of America Theater production of Peter Quilter’s Glorious! ” Sacrifices subtlety for broad humor as possible, under the direction of Paul Hough.
It’s a shame because he has assembled a first rate cast of this comedy, which offers intelligent jokes, absurd humor and just a whiff of serious intentions. The work aims to evoke the huge career and personality of Florence Foster Jenkins, a classic American eccentric who passionately pursued a singing career despite his inability to carry a tune.
The play opens as interviews Jenkins, a young pianist named Cosme Moon to be her companion. Cosme swallowed her pride and takes the job, partly because Jenkins pays well. The story takes us through a recording session and ultimately their performance exhausted at Carnegie Hall
Quilter is British and his work incorporates the dry humor and witty banter of a comedy of manners, together with the sensitivity of a crazy old Peter Cook-Dudley Moore film. Heartland production favors a cup and trademark cry of comedy that some people in the audience Wednesday night found more enjoyable. I kept wanting to adopt a more nuanced approach, which would have certainly Quilter script.
That said, I confess that I am not laughing occasionally. Debra Bluford, you can always make me laugh, Jenkins plays as a broker abuse their way down the field. More often than not opts Bluford clown, who no doubt is laughing, but some of the most intimate moments of the play are lost.
It is a questionable way, if only because the real Jenkins was so inherently absurd. How to make a joke of someone who prepared a joke?
The estimable Bruce Roach Florence boyfriend plays a Shakespearean actor named nonalcoholic St. Clair Bayfield. Roach is a great actor, but rarely Bayfield scathing remarks on target. Marilyn Lynch has some effective comic moments as the best friend of Florence, Dorothy, which coincides with the state of the singer illusion of the mind. Katie is fun Kalahurka dual role of Maria, Florence Cook speaks Spanish perpetually angry and cleaning, and as Mrs. Verrinder-Gedge, a great keeper of the culture society that dares to speak the unspeakable: that Florence can not sing .
These good actors seem to be trying a little too hard, as driven by fear that the public does not “get” jokes and jokes Quilter. Jonas Cohen records most successful performance as Cosme, companion of Florence. Cohen, who actually plays the piano, has a refined sense of comic opportunity and really sells the idea that McMoon and Jenkins developed a love (not sexual) relationship.
Sarah Oliver dresses are elegant and imaginative and has a field day with wild-performance teams of Florence. Designers Shane Rowse (lights) and Del Unruh (games) to serve the play well.
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