GLORIOUS by name, glorious in Maureen Lipman's performance and glorious in entertainment - that's Peter Quilter's new show at Malvern Theatres this week.
It's the unbelievable but true story of Mrs Florence Foster-Jenkins, "the first lady of the sliding scale" whose truly awful voice but overflowing generosity of spirit grabbed audiences in war-weary 1940s New York.
She spent lavishly of her family's cash in arranging balls and tea parties in aid of the numerous ladies' societies she favoured where the starring attraction was - herself. "People may say I can't sing" she told critics, "but no-one can ever say I didn't sing."
Her fiercely loyal friends encircled her to ensure the hysterical laughter her performances generated was drowned out in their applause, attendance was by personally-vetted ticket application only and there were petitions to keep her from performing, yet she packed out Carnegie Hall and left a mini-legacy of recordings.
Peter Quilter's Madam Jenkins is a delightfully sympathetic creation but few actors could bring her so richly to life as Maureen Lipman.
True there is also the splendid cast of supporters - Barrie Ingham as her adoring actor-suitor St Clair and Josie Kidd as fluttery adoring Dorothy; her cynical then charmed pianist Cosme McMoon, William Oxborrow; and the maid from hell Maria, Janie Booth.
True there are also the costumes, the flowers, the superb staging, the hilarious one-liners and the visual gags but this is Maureen Lipman's show and she has the audience in the palm of her hand from the first gurgling laugh.
She poses, flirts, swoops from ecstasy to despair as she pursues her artistic vision. The voice is extraordinary and it's no mean feat to achieve such tunelessness consistently throughout a show like this... it's a true tour de force. Malvern has struck gold again. Glorious! continues until Saturday.
LG
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