MAIN STAGE
August 7 - August 29, 2008

Glorious is based on a true story about Florence Foster Jenkins, a real-life eager but hopelessly inept American soprano, who built a whole career out of unintentionally butchering beautiful music - from opera arias to English folk songs - while gathering fans in the process and actually selling out Carnegie Hall. At the pinnacle of her improbable fame, in the mid-1940s, she even charmed real artists like Cole Porter, who may have admired her chutzpah as much as they relished the sheer ludicrousness of her performances.

Born into a wealthy Pennsylvania banking family, she was discouraged by her parents from pursuing her musical ambitions. But after they died and she inherited a fortune, she made up for lost time. She founded musical societies, supported musicians and finally, at age 60, embarked on a performing career of her own, using her money to make records and give lavish recitals at swanky venues like the ballroom of New York’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Not content to merely assault her audience’s ears, the elderly diva would also don ridiculous costumes, from a Spanish senorita’s garb to an "angel of inspiration" outfit complete with wings and halo, in which she would trill the likes of Valverde's "Clavelitos" and Mozart's "Queen of the Night" aria from The Magic Flute. Although aware that some people came to laugh at her, she seems to have been convinced that she was a serious artist - which made her even funnier.

Helping her along the way, are a couple of real-life figures: Jenkins’s manager-boyfriend St. Clair Byfield, a failed but jovial English actor and her accompanist, a young gay pianist, Cosmé McMoon. Joining them are Dorothy, Florence’s friend and fellow amateur, who dabbles in arts and crafts, and Maria, a temperamental Mexican maid.

Tickets on sale Spring 2008