Review: Glorious! (Oxford Playhouse)

Glorious! is billed as “The Inspiring True Story of the World’s Worst Singer”. I wondered how this idea would translate to the stage, so I went along to review the play at Oxford Playhouse.

The story is about Florence Foster Jenkins (1868-1944) a wealthy socialite and amateur coloratura soprano. An accomplished pianist – described as a childhood prodigy, this was curtailed by an accident, leaving her unable to play. She later turned to singing as a way to express her love for music, only being tone deaf, her performances were consistently flat, and she had a habit of performing pieces that were far outside of her musical ability.

During the play, the story arc is largely defined by the fact that Florence (played by Wendi Peters) can’t sing.  Instead of this being something covered as part of Florence’s story, instead it becomes the repeated reveal moment, where she launches into singing badly, some may say murdering the music she’s delighting in sharing. The comedy in the play is farcical, largely based on our protagonist’s appalling singing, but also dipping into one supporting character being mocked for being unable to communicate  in the same language as Florence, with a side order of a joke about the fact that her pianist is a closeted gay man.

Wendi Peters and Matthew James Morrison (photo by Chris Davis)

There were a couple of instances, notably at the start of the show, where pianist Cosmé McMoon (played wonderfully by Matthew James Morrison) came through the closed curtains and gave the audience a summary of the build up to a situation almost in the form of a lecture. At the start in particular all I could think was the old editorial adage “show don’t tell” the information being interesting during this segment but why wasn’t it part of the play instead of a spoken preamble?

Florence had a bit of a tragic start to her life, from the facts that have been recorded about her. In addition to losing her ability to play the piano, her sister died at the age of 8 of diphtheria, and Florence then got married on her 15^th birthday to a doctor 16 years her senior who gave her syphilis back in the time before antibiotics existed. It is likely that this untreated condition impacted on her hearing. This story feels like it doesn’t sit well as a comedy from where I’m observing it. Perhaps it is intended that the audience would be laughing with Florence instead of at her? Unfortunately, it didn’t feel like that and personally, I didn’t laugh at all.  Instead, I left the theatre feeling a deep sense of pity for the woman whose life this show was based on.

Whether Florence really did believe she was an accomplished soprano or whether she was just enjoying the openings that were available to her due to her family wealth will never be known.  Regularly performing to curated audiences, and believing they loved her was either delusion or something she enjoyed for what it was, but the (slightly more engaging) second half of the play showed that the pianist who had formerly started working for her for the money had grown fond of her, and strived to protect her, including making adjustments to the musical score to compensate for her lacking vocals. This loyalty and the development of their relationship was unfortunately only touched on, at a point where the emotional connection felt rushed and minimal. It was also one of the few moments where the interaction was calm, quiet and easy to listen to.

Matthew James Morrison (photo by Chris Davis)

Similarly, relationships with other supporting characters were fleeting and almost forgettable. From the maid, Maria, who speaks a different language, to the friend, Dorothy (Sioned Jones) who inexplicably encourages Florence in her ventures, and then again to Mrs Verrinder-Gedge (played by Caroline Gruber, who also plays Maria) trying to put an end to Florence’s stage time, these performances were all authentic and had an impact for the amount of time they were present, but I feel like the characters of Dorothy and Mrs Verrinder-Gedge should have been given more to do, and Maria was surplus to requirement after her first appearance as far as moving the story forward goes.                        

All in all, the lack of layers in the narrative were disappointing.  There’s only so far you can go with someone singing badly. Further development of relationships between Florence and her supporting characters would have made it much more of an engaging watch, particularly to have found out more about the relationship developing between Cosmé and Florence outside of Florence’s performances, and also to find out more – or anything at all - about Cosmé’s life away from his employer.

The set (Ingrid Hu) and lighting (Mike Robertson) was functional, and fitting for the time the play was depicting. I particularly liked the backdrop including birds which was visually stunning.

A highlight for me was Matthew James Morrison’s performance, which brought Cosmé McMoon to life beautifully. My theatre partner and I were even convinced he was playing the piano live on stage, however this was apparently not the case.  

The last scene of the show involved Wendi Peters lip synching to a recorded piece of music. I feel like this moment would have had much more of an impact if the singing had been live. There were a few moments during her portrayal of Florence where her own voice shone through, and this would have been good to have heard more of during that final scene.

Sioned Jones, Matthew James Morrison, Wendi Peters and Caroline Gruber (Curtain call photo)

My thoughts on this play are not in any way a reflection on performance, more the writing and direction, and indeed the initial decision to create a comedy out of this story. A show completely based on effectively mocking someone is not something I find it easy to laugh at, but this is just my opinion and please bear in mind a review is only ever the thoughts of one person. Don’t let my thoughts put you off seeing Glorious! if you do fancy it as other people were laughing even if my friend and I were not.

⭐⭐

The run at Oxford Playhouse has now finished but the tour of Glorious!  continues.  Please click this link for more information on future dates.

I was gifted tickets for this show in exchange for an honest review.