On October 25, 1944, wealthy (and tone-deaf) soprano Florence Foster Jenkins and her accompanist Cosme McMoon performed a recital at Carnegie Hall. Tickets sold out weeks in advance; an estimated 2,000 people were turned away at the door. The world of music has never quite recovered. Come share the hilarious and touching tale of this unlikely pair in the musical "Souvenir" at Catskill's Bridge Street Theatre March 16th through the 26th.
Opera impresario
Ira Siff, who dubbed her "the anti-Callas", has said, "Jenkins was exquisitely bad, so bad that it added up to quite a good evening of theater ... There was no end to the horribleness ... They say
Cole Porter had to bang his cane into his foot in order not to laugh out loud when she sang. She was that bad." The historian Stephen Pile ranked her as "the world's worst opera singer". "No one, before or since," he wrote, "has succeeded in liberating themselves quite so completely from the shackles of musical notation."
Appearing in the cast of this co-production between Bridge Street Theatre and Fort Salem Theater (who will present the production in Salem, NY this July) are soprano Alison Davy as
Florence Foster Jenkins and pianist Jay Kerr as
Cosme McMoon. The musical production is directed by Flo Hayle.
"Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of
Florence Foster Jenkins" will be presented on the Bridge Street Theatre Mainstage for 8 performances only - Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2:00pm from March 16-26. The Thursday March 16 preview and the Sunday March 19 matinee are "Pay-What-You-Can" performances. Advance tickets are available for $22, $10 for Students age 21 and under, at BrownPaperTickets.com or by calling 800-838-3006. Tickets can also be purchased at the door prior to each performance (on a space available basis) for $25, $10 for Students age 21 and under. However, a Season Subscription is also available at a substantial discount - only $100 for Bridge Street Theatre's entire 5-play Theatre Series, of which "Souvenir" is the first. To purchase a Season Subscription, visit BrownPaperTickets.com or give them a call at 800-838-3006. The theatre is located at 44 West Bridge Street in the Village of Catskill, NY.
Events at Bridge Street Theatre are supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and by Public Funds from the Greene County Legislature through the Cultural Fund administered in Greene County by the Greene County Council on the Arts.
For more information, visit the theatre online at BridgeSt.org.
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