Glorious! Review: The Feel-Good Comedy That Proves Following Your Dreams Is Everything

Susanna Kindler
17 minutes ago
3 min read

★★★★

Woman in a lavender dress with pearls exclaims joyfully, while a man in a white suit holds sheet music against a pink musical background. — Wendi Peters and Cosme McMoon in Glorious!

Last night I had the pleasure of reviewing a 20th anniversary production of the hit West End comedy GLORIOUS! This was my first visit to a very busy Devonshire Park Theatre in Eastbourne.

Glorious! Is the true story of American socialite Florence Foster Jenkins (played expertly by Wendi Peters) who was dubbed the ‘worst singer in the world’. Florence staged and starred in classical recitals in major venues including the famous Carnegie Hall in New York.

Florence had the money available to put on her recitals for invited (auditioned) audiences. One would have imagined that her poor talent would have deterred her guests, but not so and this is in part due to Florence’s apparent lack of self-awareness and her amazing character.

As the play continues we learn more of Florence’s background through the narration of her pianist Cosme McMoon played by Matthew James Morrison and her friend and biggest fan Dorothy played by Sioned Jones.

Gradually Florence becomes more and more endearing and she weaves her magic spell over a previously skeptical Cosme, who had only accepted the gig as her pianist because he needed the money.

I must admit I felt quite emotional by the end, but I won’t spoil the story here! Although emotional I didn’t feel sad. Quite the opposite as the play was full of laughs, mostly at Florence’s expense. She reminded me a little, of the wonderful Patricia Routledge’s Mrs Bucket at times.

Wendi played the part beautifully, showing both Florence’s supreme confidence and her hidden vulnerability. Her singing was completely believable - it must be so difficult to sing that badly on purpose and not turn off the audience. I did wonder beforehand if a play about an out of tune performer would assault my ears and be unpleasant, but Wendi managed to perform