Souvenir

This fall the Lyceum Theatre will host a show revolving around someone with no talent. Sound like juicy bait for the killer Gotham critics? Not so—Stephen Temperley's Souvenir, starring Judy Kaye as tone-deaf singer Florence Foster Jenkins, did well with reviewers when it ran at the York Theater last year and has been collecting raves during its current run at the Berkshire Theatre Festival.

"Flo Fo, as I like to call her, was a wealthy dowager who perceived herself to be a great soprano when in fact she couldn't carry a tune," Kaye a Tony-winning singer, who purposely sounds horrible in Souvenir explains. "She had so much confidence and so much love of what she was doing, it made her kind of irresistible. Two thousand people were turned away from her Carnegie Hall concert in 1944."

Yes, Jenkins was a real person who really worked with accompanist Cosme McMoon played by Donald Corren, who is also featured in the play. But don't think Souvenir is a detailed retelling of her story. "I use a few basic facts, but it's very loosely based on her life," says Temperley. "I call it a fantasia." Temperley wrote the play from McMoon's point-of-view, his remembrances of his 12-year relationship with Jenkins commemorated by a series of excruciating recordings. Souvenir is about something more than two specific people though, it is about self-delusion in general.

"Very often people in the audience see themselves up there," Kaye states. "There are a lot of people out there who sing in showers that really can't carry a tune, but when they are singing, they think they are the best singers that ever walked the planet. Florence had that confidence. It's not about what people heard, it's about what she believed."

SOUVENIR WHERE: Lyceum Theatre, 149 West 45th Street WHEN: Starts October 28, opens November 10