The play tells the true story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a socialite known as the worst singer in the world. While she was famously off-key, she had the confidence to sell out Carnegie Hall. For Wendi Peters, a musical theatre veteran and Coronation Street star, the role required her to work with a musical director just to learn how to sing flat.
In the interview below, Wendi discusses the challenge of performing opera badly, her time playing the legendary Cilla Battersby, and the “chutzpah” it took for Florence to follow her dreams.
The twentieth anniversary UK tour of Glorious!, a celebration of the tone-deaf American socialite, Florence Foster Jenkins, whose sold-out concerts attracted audiences spellbound by her musical ineptitude, is about to hit the road with Wendi Peters playing our heroine.
Last March, I was Florence at the Hope Mill theatre in Manchester. We had a ball but it was hard work. I had to learn to sing opera badly. I’m a musical theatre performer; I started my career in productions like Guys and Dolls and Sondheim’s Into the Woods. More recently, I was in Sister Act.
Can you sing in tune?
I can so it’s proved quite a challenge to sing off-key. Florence sings four big numbers in the play including Mozart’s Queen of the Night from The Magic Flute. I started by learning it note perfect.
Then, with the help of the musical director, we tweaked certain notes that I’d sing flat or where I’d get the phrasing wrong. I’ve got a stronger voice than Frances’s so I had to work at producing more of a reedy sound.
Do you think Florence knew how hopeless a singer she was?
I wonder. I think it must sometimes have crossed her mind that audiences were laughing at her rather than with her and there would be a reason for that.
That inevitably injects a certain poignancy into proceedings…
Absolutely – and particularly in the second half of the play. On the other hand, she got her wish to perform to 3000 people at Carnegie Hall which would have bankrupted her if the concert hadn’t sold out. So, the woman had chutzpah.
But whatever she might be doing wrong, she could see that she was loved, see that she entertained audiences. Mind you, it’s a shameful reflection on human nature that people get pleasure out of watching somebody doing something badly. But then, just think of the early auditions on X Factor.
You’re best known for playing Cilla Battersby in Corrie. How did that change your life?
I’d been working for 10 years when I got the role of Cilla but there’s no doubt she opened a lot of doors for me. Glorious! is a case in point. So, I’m grateful to her although, within a week of appearing in Corrie, I was being stopped in the street. You don’t realise the power of a soap until you actually appear in one as a regular character.
Did you like Cilla?
To begin with, she was mischievous and fun but she quickly morphed into a bit of a monster. She wasn’t murdering anybody but she was a real trouble-maker. I don’t think anybody on the cobbles liked her but I loved playing her although I wouldn’t want to live next door to her. She’d have been a nightmare neighbour. It’s always more fun playing a baddie.
Which were your favourite storylines?
Only weeks into my joining the cast, I had a ruck with Rita Sullivan who’d slapped my son, Chesney, for stealing from her shop. I got Rita banged up for a night and claimed compensation.
I’d only been there five minutes and there I was standing in the street shouting at Rita – Dame Barbara Knox, as we called her – and I almost had to pinch myself. Barbara couldn’t have been more helpful, more welcoming.
But I was just a girl from Lancashire who used to watch Corrie every Friday night with her grandma and here I was sitting on Gail Platt’s garden wall. Surreal.
After four years, you finally called it a day in 2007
I wanted to go back to doing other things like theatre and panto. Also, I was living in London at the time so I was having to travel up to Manchester a lot and I missed my little girl, Gracie, who was only four when I started playing Cilla. But luckily, they didn’t kill her off so she’s still out there somewhere.
Do you still watch Corrie?
The last time I did, it was all doom and gloom. I rather missed the fact there was no longer any comedy on the cobbles. In my opinion, they’re after a younger audience.
Would you ever go back?
People always ask that and I always answer in the same way: never say never. If they came up with an irresistible storyline, I might be tempted. That said, I’m too busy at the moment. My head is full of Florence.
Glorious! is coming to the Queen’s Theatre in Barnstaple from 31st March to 4th April. Visit gloriousplay.com for full tour dates.
GLORIOUS! The True Story of American Socialite Florence Foster Jenkins
