<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Peter Quilter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Director Ken Agnew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Glorious! is the true story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a wealthy American socialite who, despite being dubbed \u2018The worst singer in the world’, remained convinced that she was a great singer. Despite being mocked by society, she brought in huge numbers of people to concerts, even selling out Carnegie Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pippa Olliver was perfect for the role of Florence. She has a very strong voice and carried an American accent beautifully throughout. It is very hard to deliberately sing badly but Olliver did it very well, without sounding like a caricature. I wonder if she can even speak now, after her screeching. She played comedy beautifully but was also very moving when Florence was questioning whether she was, in fact, loved. She comes across as deluded but also very likeable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Maid (Eliza Harris) was fabulous. Her Spanish was great and I very much enjoyed her lovely air of condescension. The looks she threw at the others were just fabulous. She was absolutely hilarious. St Clair (Phil Astle) was very good. I enjoyed the way he pandered to Florence and loved his flirtiness towards the Maid. He did a great job, and you could really see St Clair\u2019s love for Florence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dorothy (Ziona Smith) was great. She had a very good accent. She was very ditsy and I loved how she spoke to the Maid in loud, slow English, with an occasional Spanish word thrown in, like the worst kind of tourist. She was delightfully over the top and had some really nice throwaway one-liners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cosm\u00e9 (Nick Room) was brilliant. I loved his American accent. He did a great job at looking nervous around Florence, and his shocked looks when he heard her singing was were great. I loved his muttered asides. I also loved his pained looks when hearing her recordings, and especially the way he shrank away when she tried to stroke his hair. His visible shudders when she mangled notes were great. Room did a great job of the comedy but also gave a lovely performance as Cosm\u00e9\u2019s feelings changed and he came to love Florence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maggie Lane was fabulous as Mrs Verrinder Gedge. She had some great lines. I loved her swoon when Florence was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Costume was beautiful throughout. It was absolutely authentic and very appropriate to the 40s\u2019s, with sumptuous furs and lots of sparkle. The men\u2019s suits were absolutely spot-on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sound (by James Blackburn) was brilliant. The gramophone records sounded real, and the sound cues were always perfectly timed. The director, Ken Agnew, did a great job. Pacing was secure and use of the stage was great. I always think it\u2019s easy to see if a director is bad, but a good director is always the unsung hero of the piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Onto the set, by Malcolm Robertshaw. My only criticism is that there was no carpet. I think the addition of some carpeting would have made it look more like a house. Apart from that, the set was fine. Furnishings were lined up at the back of the stage, showing Florence\u2019s propensity for clutter, and there was a screen at the back which showed changing scenery. This screen was also used to great effect to give us subtitles for the Spanish Maid. The baby grand piano was a lovely addition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This play was hilarious all the way through. I had never heard about Florence Foster Jenkins before, but I absolutely loved it. I struggled to see for a lot of it as I was crying tears of laughter. I enjoyed every minute, as did the rest of the audience. We were in fits of laughter throughout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Highbury Players always do a great job of everything they do, and this one was no exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thank you so much Highbury. Now, I\u2019m off to teach music to the deaf!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reviewed by – Lesley L.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Peter Quilter. Director Ken Agnew. Glorious! is the true story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a wealthy American socialite who, despite being dubbed \u2018The worst singer in the world’, remained […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-2027","category-highbury-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfame.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfame.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfame.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfame.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfame.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bfame.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2823,"href":"https:\/\/bfame.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions\/2823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfame.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfame.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfame.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfame.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}