“People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing.” In the early 20th century, Florence Foster Jenkins had the bravado and the bankroll to establish a dubiously successful singing career. "Souvenir" hilariously celebrates this most unconventional--and untalented--diva.

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“People used to say to me: Why does she do it? I always thought the better question was: Why did I?”~Accompanist Cosme McMoon
Click to read an interview about Cosme McMoon's time as Florence Foster Jenkins' accompanist.

This heartfelt comedy follows the glittering career of the incorrigible Florence Foster Jenkins recounted by her devoted pianist, in a truly magnificent play about friendship, conviction, and a certain amount of vocal imagination …

Cosme McMoon, a young and somewhat impoverished pianist, is set up with the aspiring socialite-singer Florence Foster Jenkins as she searches for an accompanist. From the first stridently discordant notes he finds himself cornered into a musical partnership with her, a temporary arrangement that ended up lasting for twelve years.

As her career goes from strength to strength, McMoon is drawn closer to her childlike belief in her own talent, becoming her protector against the negative critique to which she is oblivious.

In the climax of the second act, they take on Carnegie Hall—the opportunity of a lifetime for both performers. In a heart-wrenching performance of her much-beloved ‘Ave Maria’, a glimmer of self-doubt awakens in Jenkins as her audience let forth their hysterical laughter.

In his final act of devoted friendship, McMoon praises her concert and leads her triumphant to her awaiting friends. The play closes with a moving commemoration of her singing, and the eternal joy and pleasure she had whilst onstage.

Reviews of Souvenir

San Fransisco Chronicle (2009)
"Comedic brilliance! A laugh riot…”

NY Times 11.Nov.2005
“Stephen Temperley's "Souvenir," the sweet but none-too-short love letter of a play…”

“For "Souvenir" - and this is a kindness - turns out to be less a simulation of a fabulously terrible singer than a portrait of a relationship…”