Bringing a famously-bad singer to the stage - Guildford dates
To Wendi Peters falls the challenge of singing…not terribly well, to be honest, as she hits the road with GLORIOUS!
From May 5-9 it plays Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, the true story of American socialite Florence Foster Jenkins, known for her flamboyant costumes, enigmatic performances and decidedly off-key voice.
Wendi, best known for her long-running role as Cilla Battersby in Coronation Street and most recently as a regular on the BBC show Doctors as Nina Bulsara, promises a show which will fill you with joy and send you home happy.
“She is such an interesting character. She is a real person and she did have some talent. She was a very talented pianist and played at the White House as a child. And then she did train in singing and opera but I don't think she ever really knew what she could or couldn’t do or really realise what she was doing when she was singing. We have to add some artistic licence for the show, but you can listen to some of her recordings and actually watch her on YouTube, and the truth is that she was not as bad as many people make her out to be. It was more about breath control and phrasing but also there is no depth to her voice. But either way, it was certainly not a voice that you would want to show off!
“And actually I do think there were odd moments when she realised that. But people loved listening to her and watching her. I liken it a bit to those X Factor auditions, the ones that go terribly wrong, the ones which people for wrong reasons find really wonderful to watch. I think people were laughing for the wrong reasons but this woman had such chutzpah and such balls that she didn't care what people were saying and thinking. As long as she was singing, she was happy and she didn’t care about anything else. She was in her element!
“Her father cut her off because he didn't want her to sing in public but when he died, he left everything to her and she was able to sing where she wanted and it all ended up with her booking the Carnegie Hall which she funded.
“I adore her. I adore everything about her. I think there are probably a lot of people who care just too much about what other people think. As I get older I don't so much but I think the fact is that everybody wants to be loved. She wanted a bit of adulation and a bit of love and she had not had much of that in her life. It all went terribly wrong with a husband who we don't talk about that much in the play.”
In fact the play is more about her relationship with her pianist, a relationship which unfolds beautifully in the piece, Wendi says.
Inevitably it's all an interesting and curious challenge: “In a way it is harder to sing the way she does but I didn't want to make it so obvious. She has four opera tunes throughout the show of varying degrees of height and length and we decided that I would learn them correctly and then with each piece we would pick it apart and work out which notes not to get the breathing right on and which notes to let fall flat. You can't have someone singing terribly all the way through because that wasn't what she was. She could hold a tune but obviously I wanted to show what she was like.
“We did the show last year for a month in Manchester and I'm just thrilled that it's been picked up now. It is the kind of play that we need to see at the moment. Everyone will come out filled with great joy. It's a really fun show and I hope people will come out filled with curiosity about this remarkable woman.”