Skylight's Charming Souvenir

As the 1940s anti-diva Florence Foster Jenkins, Linda Stephens is a little bit Margaret Dumont, a little bit James Lipton, and a whole lot of fun. Jenkins was a New York socialite who became notorious for her recitals—orgies of bad intonation and excess emotion. Stephen Temperley’s charming, often hilarious play, Souvenir, playing at the Skylight until March 30, wants us to see the spirit behind her determination to “live inside the music.”
When Stephens channels Jenkins, singing Rigoletto (Gilda’s aria “Cara Nome”), she’s a sight to behold. She sings with her shoulders, with her jaw, and her hips. and her forearms, flinging them forward as if the notes need a little extra push to get to the audience. Holding one long uneasy note, her body palpitates like a skein of limp fettuccini, eventually deflating as she moves down a long slow glissando that sounds a little like a Cessna coming in to land.

Read the entire review at Culture Club.