TheaterWorks’ “Souvenir” a love song to music

HARTFORD — There’s that old saying that if you are poor and you do something odd, you are crazy, but if you are rich and you do something odd, you’re eccentric.
Certainly that later definition would fit the real life phenomenon that swept the New York imagination for a decade in the 1930s in the remarkable and unique person of society matron Florence Foster Jenkins.
Jenkins considered herself a prima donna opera soprano of the first rank, but actually never met a note she couldn’t massacre. Notes were more of a suggestion in her estimation than the rule, but her lack of rhythm, tempo, and diction were all equally bad.
Still, she became a ‘cause celebre’ in her own right, more for her complete lack of self awareness and delusional single-mindedness that she was as good if not better than the other professional soprano of her day.
The play is narrated from the perspective of her long time and long suffering accompanist, Cosme McMoon, here played by the talented Edwin Cahill, who is both good as a pianist and an actor.
He takes the audience through the journey of his remembrances of his working with Foster Jenkins, from his derision and embarrassment, through to his eventual admiration of and caring for this remarkable woman.
It takes a talented singer to sing as consistently awful as she does, and Neva Rae Powers is up to the challenge. She is so painfully bad that it is similar to watching a train wreck — you want to look away, but just can’t.
Powers is masterful as the optimistic and endlessly resilient and sweet woman who lived her dream. How many people can say they do what makes them most fulfilled and happy?
“What matters most is the music that you hear in your head,” says McMoon. “It is the music that must come before all.”
McMoon says that often, audience members would have to leave the room to gather themselves from sudden fits of convulsive laughter that Foster Jenkins attributed to being seriously moved by her music. “People had tears in their eyes,” McMoon says, well aware of the reason for their crying.
He also says that the seasoned audience members would coach the newcomers on “how to pace themselves,” to get through a performance.
He says that the crowds were like the people you see at boxing matches, “with gasps and shrieks, and doors banging.”
She knew that some derided her, but she chalked that up to ‘professional jealousy,’ and even said that during a recording it was the piano that was out of tune, not her, since she believed she had perfect pitch.
"The piano is not quite with the voice,” she informs the exasperated McMoon.
Her most famous song is her rendition, well beyond her technical ability, of Mozart’s “Queen of the Night,” “The Laughing Song,” from Johann Strauss II “Die Fledermaus,” and more, all the while delighting in her efforts.
Some of the other songs peppered into the show, thankfully sung and played by Cahill’s McMoon, are the jazzy “One for My Baby,” “Violets for Your Furs,” and “Crazy Rhythm.”
There were many fantastic costumes by Theresa Ham in this show, all donned by our diva, culminated in the white winged angel outfit she wears when she singing the show-stopping “Ave Maria,” at an unforgettable performance at Carnegie Hall and recaptured here.
The small, intimate theater at TheaterWorks is well suited to smaller casts such as the two folks in this show, and, with smooth direction by Michael Evan Haney, “Souvenirs” captures the enthusiasm of and gentle joking towards this unique woman.
McMoon says in astonishment, “She was never unhappy and only got happier. I found myself admiring her.”
You will too in this delightful and loving peek into the life of a woman who followed her dream and lived it.

SOUVENIRS

3 Stars
Theater: TheaterWorks
Location: 233 Pearl St. Hartford.
Production: Written by Stephen Temperley. Directed by Michael Evan Haney. Set design by Adrian W. Jones. Lights by Matthew Richards. Sound design by Fitz Patton. Costumes by Theresa Ham.
Running time: 2 hours with one intermission.
Show Times: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Matinees on Saturdays and Sundays - 2:30 p.m. The show will run through May 23.
Tickets: Unassigned seating is $39; $49 on Friday and Saturday nights. Center reserved seats $12 extra. $12 student rush tickets at showtime with valid ID (subject to availability). Season tickets are $129 for five shows. For tickets call 860-527-7838 or visit their website at www.theaterworkshartford.org.
ACTOR…CHARACTER
Neva Rae Powers … Florence Foster Jenkins
Edwin Cahill … Cosme McMoon