The Heart Is A Tone-Deaf Hunter: Souvenir @ ACT
Souvenir @ ACT
Tues - Sun, through June 10, Tickets $10-$54 ($10 students, 25-and-under)
Before the Salon of Shame, long before, in the 1930s and '40s, people had to make do with socialite Florence Foster Jenkins, who shared her stage with no one -- except her accompanist Cosme McMoon. The Internet reports:
A dumpy coloratura soprano, her voice was not even mediocre - it was preposterous! She clucked and squawked, trumpeted and quavered. She couldn't carry a tune. Her sense of rhythm was uncertain. In the treacherous upper registers, her voice often vanished into thin air...Like the Salon of Shame, her recitals sold out, including her legendary benefit appearance at Carnegie Hall. There was even a record.
Souvenir, by Stephen Temperley, is a shade longer than it needs to be to explore the mystery of lovable no-talents brimming with infectious enthusiasm. At two hours (with an intermission), that's a good deal of the very talented Patti Cohenour channeling an indomitable Barbara Walters-Madeline Kahn hybrid. If that sounds hilarious, it might be. If that sounds like nails on a chalkboard, it might be. The more musical and singing terms you know, the more you laugh.
The story is told by middle-aged, occasionally queeny pianist Cosme (Mark Anders), who explains how he arrived in New York, took the accompanist gig to pay rent, and ended up working with Jenkins for twelve years. He's the dramatic contrast, the one who worries about what this is doing to his musical career as an aspiring song composer and lyricist, and stages substitute-son rebellions at his substitute-mother's lack of social (and musical) awareness.
Anders has exactly the bright, thin tenor required of a Tin-Pan wannabe. In fact we forgot, after a while, that Anders wasn't McMoon. He steals the second act spotlight, reminiscing about his own artistic hopes and how envious he was of Jenkins' happiness at simply performing, no matter what. The last act focuses on the Carnegie Hall extravaganza and the staging (by R. Hamilton Wright) gets campier -- Jenkins had a different costume made for each song -- before swooping in for an emotional close.
From the audience's laughter, and the standing ovation, we gather that this might just be the closest thing to attending the real deal. Is that worth $37.50 or even $54? Maybe it's because we know what it's like to have a pianist plink a key louder and louder, saying with heat, "This is the note" (we have issues with multi-part harmony), but we were never able to laugh as uproariously as the people around us. But some of you -- you know who you are -- will laugh until you cry.
Photo: Patti Cohenour as Florence Foster Jenkins, accompanied by Mark Anders as Cosme McMoon; by Chris Bennion.
