Theatre review - Glorious at the Festival Theatre, Malvern (until Saturday)

NEVER mind what the title indicates, this wasn't just glorious, it was simply magnificent.

Peter Quilter's new comedy -based on the true life story of the singer known as 'the first lady of the sliding scale' - provides a truly memorable night at the theatre.

Maureen Lipman plays the delightful diva - the eccentric Florence Foster Jenkins, whose own stage performances in America back in the 1940s were also memorable, but for all the wrong reasons. She just couldn't hit a note.

It didn't stop her... "People may say that I cannot sing, but no one can say that I didn't sing!" ...appears to have been her motto.

It's the absolute vehicle for Ms Lipman to show us her wonderful comic timing and acting talents, and she has an excellent support cast too - including Janie Booth, a mad Mexican maid. She was more or less a female Manuel of Fawlty Towers fame. After all - she was from Guadalajara!

William Oxborrow was the perfect pianist-cum-narrator, Cosme McMoon; while Barrie Ingham, the English 'act-tor' always seeking work on Broadway, and Josie Kidd, the frothy but dippy Dorothy, all made the most of an excellent script and direction.

Great fun throughout and another show that is more than highly recommended. A real five-star barnstormer!

Florence may not have been able to sing - but this was definitely a night when absolutely nothing was out of tune. AW