Comedy paces drama of a singer who put awe in awful

Jude Knight portrays deluded Florence Foster Jenkins in ''Souvenir'' at Theatre Memphis, with David Shipley telling her story as her accompanist, Cosme McMoon.

"Nothing is more detrimental to good singing than this modern mania for accuracy," laments the singer in a new play at Theatre Memphis, a show in which the music is so dreadful that the audience guffaws through nearly the entire production.

That's meant as a compliment.

Jude Knight portrays deluded Florence Foster Jenkins in ''Souvenir'' at Theatre Memphis, with David Shipley telling her story as her accompanist, Cosme McMoon.

And this, too: The worst singing of actress Jude Knight's long association with the Memphis stage may someday be regarded as her most memorable performance.

Opera singers and music buffs will no doubt rush for tickets once they learn the title of the play. "Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins" is a valentine for both aficionados of bad art and the artists who dare to make it.

Jenkins (1868-1944) was a wealthy socialite who studied classical music first as a pianist, then as a singer. At some point in her life, she persuaded herself to put on recitals for friends. The character of her voice aroused so much interest, her concerts always sold out.

Eventually, she cut the records that are now her legacy. Her shrill, almost tone-deaf renditions of arias by Mozart, Strauss and Delibes still today send dogs and cats rushing from the room and force human listeners to contemplate the unsolved mystery of her life: Did she really think she was gifted, and if so, why didn't anyone tell her she wasn't?

Playwright Stephen Temperley's splendid two-person dramatic comedy examines the relationship between the deluded Madame Flo (played by Knight) and her enabling piano accompanist and vocal coach, Cosme McMoon (David Shipley).

It's 1964, and McMoon is looking back on his life as a mediocre pianist and failed songwriter. His own hopes of stardom have been completely eclipsed by a woman whose name is synonymous with awful.

He recalls getting drawn into the endearing older woman's unflappable belief in her own vocal prowess.

"What matters most is the music you hear in your head," Jenkins tells him. "The impossible ideal, as it were. The beauty not quite within our grasp."

In Jenkins' case, beauty is miles away, but for reasons that McMoon struggles to explain throughout the play, he sticks by her throughout the rest of her life, shamefully abetting her quixotic musical adventure all the way to Carnegie Hall.

The cherubic naïveté with which Knight plays the role of Jenkins, achieved through ever-fluttering eyelids and a big approval-seeking smile that conceals no hint of irony, is the root of Cosme's consternation.

"What ... was ... she ... hearing?" he asks the audience. "What was going on in her head? Was I in the presence of mere delusion or a kind of dementia?"

Shipley plays McMoon's sardonic sense of humor to the hilt, and the two of them -- one as innocent as a child, and the other jaded and scandalized -- forge a bond that, if not exactly cuddly, becomes supportive in time.

As far as the singing goes, Knight's forays into the classical repertoire are so boldly off the mark that one admires the sheer force of will needed to sustain such ineptitude. Indeed, Knight was sought out by director Bennett Wood because she's an excellent vocalist.

Knight is decidedly hilarious trashing "Ave Maria." But she'll also make you realize just how hard it is to sing poorly with conviction. Knight's own performance underscores what made Jenkins the legendary artist she was. There are many bad singers out there, but very few who can raise it to a level approximating art.

'Souvenir'

The play continues through Dec. 20 at Theatre Memphis, 630 Perkins Ext. Shows are 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $28 adults, $15 students and $10 children. Call 682-8323.

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