March 2017
SOUVENIR: A Fantasia on the
Life of Florence Foster
Jenkins
by Stephen Temperley
From the review by B.A. Nilsson in The Alt
"Florence Foster Jenkins comes alive in Bridge
Street Theatre's "Souvenir" ... As McMoon, Jay Kerr
brings the triple-threat talents of actor, singer, and
pianist to the role: entirely convincing as a nightclub chanteur,
he then inhabits his forty-years-younger self, revealing
an ambitious but cautious young man who needs money but
has a calling to pursue ... Alison Davy plays the singer
with a giddy energy that makes her so endearing that
it’s a shock when she launches into “Caro nome.” It’s
not just that she sings wildly off key and with only the
slightest sense of rhythm: there also are the pig-squeal
timbre and mad facial tics to enhance the
unpleasantness. Difficult as it is to sing well, it’s
even tougher for a terrific singer to sing badly on
purpose, and Davy does it with truly admirable awfulness
... A shared love of music brings these two together,
and the relationship finds the much-younger pianist
passing through shame into protective fondness, and
finally into an emotionally fraught partnership. Even as
Kerr is able to lob one-liners at us with sculpted
precision ... Davy gets a golden moment at the end of
the piece when we’re allowed to hear what Florence
Foster Jenkins must have heard in her head, and Gounod’s
“Ave Maria” never sounded so good. It’s another Bridge
Street Theatre success, with skilled direction by
Florence Hayle and a versatile set by John
Sowle. Souvenir is one of a number of plays (and, of
course, a movie) focusing on the career of this
nonpareil, and it’s the best of them." -- B.A. Nilsson,
The Alt
Read the complete review HERE.
From the review by
J. Peter Bergman in Berkshire Bright Focus
"Alison Davy, who plays Jenkins, is a dynamo with
the most wonderfully weird performance manner and sound.
She is unstoppable. She is laughably brilliant. Her most
solemn, human moments touch you to the depths of your
humorous soul and you find yourself sympathizing with
your laughter time and again ... Davy wonderfully
performs every song with nuanced mania and bell-toned
dystopia. I loved every minute of her performance ...
Kerr as McMoon reminiscing about his diva twenty years
later, is lovely with just the right sense of the
sardonic as he tells his story, for this is his story as
much as it is hers. He plays piano with a carefree
touch, sings popular songs and classical arias with
equal grace. He lets us enjoy McMoon's fate while
showing us how a man can be roped and tied and harnassed
against his will while still glorying in his unasked for
fate ... they both give us the exacting and exhausting
experience of a lifetime. Here Flo Hayle, the director,
shines through the middle. She, too, has known that
center-stage existence and as she moves her two players
in and out of their self-absorbed performances the three
merge into a single unit of lyrical appearance." -- J.
Peter Bergman, Berkshire Bright Focus
Read the complete review HERE.
Through March 26 only.
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Press Release and Press Photos of SOUVENIR
Bridge Street Theatre
in Association with Fort Salem
Theatre, Salem, NY
SOUVENIR: A Fantasia on the
Life of Florence Foster
Jenkins
A Musical (?)
Comedy
with
Alison Davy as
Florence Foster Jenkins
Jay Kerr as Cosme McMoon
Directed by Flo Hayle
Musical
Direction by Jay Kerr
Sets and Lights by John Sowle
Costumes by Kaitlyn Day
Sound Design by Carmen Borgia
Stage Manager – Caedmon Holland
Dresser - Sue Ward
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
their hilarious saga in SOUVENIR, on stage at Catskill’s
Bridge Street Theatre. In this production, the role of
Florence Foster Jenkins, for which Meryl Streep was
nominated for a 2017 Oscar, will be played by BST’s own
Alison Davy.
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."
March 16
– 26, Thurs – Sat @ 7:30, Sun @ 2:00
Tickets $22 in
Advance, $25 at the Door, $10 Students
Advance
tickets at
BrownPaperTickets.com or 800-383-3006
Click
HERE to Subscribe to Bridge Street Theatre’s 2017
Season and get all five season shows for the price of
four. It’s like getting tickets to SOUVENIR for free!
STEPHEN TEMPERLEY (Playwright)
Born in London, Stephen Temperley first came to the U.S.
as a teenager. He trained as an actor at the American
Academy of Dramatic Arts. The first of his plays to be
produced was BESIDE THE SEASIDE at the Hudson Guild,
directed by Vivian Matalon who has directed all of his
work since. Other plays include MONEY/MERCY, which was
first produced at the Chelsea Theatre center and then as
part of the first HBO New Writers' Workshop, and DANCE
WITH ME, which was first seen at the 18th Street Theatre
and later at Centenary Theatre Company. Workshops
include a musical, THAT KIND OF WOMAN, for Dodger
Productions and IN THE COUNTRY OF THE FREE. THE PILGRIM
PAPERS, a satirical comedy about the Plymouth Colony,
was produced by the Berkshire Theatre Festival in their
'06 season. SOUVENIR was first seen at the York Theatre
before going on to the Berkshire Theatre Festival and
Broadway. It has since become one of the most produced
plays in the US. Recently, it opened to rave reviews in
Berlin and is slated for productions in South America,
Australia, and Scandinavia.
ALISON DAVY
(Florence Foster Jenkins) Praised by Opera
Orchestra of New York conductor Eve Queler for her
“beautiful expression and style,” Alison Davy has
appeared in opera and oratorio both nationally and
internationally. She has performed with, among others,
Washington National Opera, Encompass New Opera Theatre,
Handel Choir of Baltimore, Centro Musica Antica in
Italy, Parma Symphony Orchestra, Newark-Granville
Symphony Orchestra and the Choral Arts Society of
Washington, DC outreach program. Ms. Davy was also
featured as a guest artist at Lincoln Center’s Bruno
Walter Auditorium, singing Spohr’s Sechs Deutsche Lieder
and was selected to perform at The White House for
President and Mrs. Clinton. This season Ms. Davy sings
as soloist in Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with Newton
Community Chorus; Händel’s Judas Maccabaeus with
Greenwich Choral Society; performs Steven Lebetkin’s Six
Songs on Poems by Walt Whitman in a world premiere
recording with the City of Prague Philharmonic and
Schubert’s Der Hirt auf dem Felsen with Phoenix Ensemble
in New York. Recent engagements include Haydn’s The
Creation with Choral Society of the Hamptons; Dierdre in
the World Premiere of Richard Pearson Thomas’ A Wake or
a Wedding with Encompass New Opera Theatre; Britten’s
Les Illuminations with East Bay Chamber Orchestra in San
Francisco; Violetta in scenes from La Traviata at the
National Opera Center; and contemporary music recitals
at the Dimenna Center in New York City and Kingston
Festival of the Arts, where she also performed with
renowned flautist Eugenia Zukerman. This versatile
artist has sung as a soloist at the Holders
International Music Festival in Barbados, at the Mann
Center in Philadelphia and has participated in the
Caramoor Festival with Maestro William Crutchfield.
Awards include finalist in the Vera Scammon Competition,
semifinalist in the Oratorio Society of New York
Competition, recipient of the Todd Duncan Award from
Annapolis Opera and the George Woodhead Prize from
Peabody Conservatory. Alison has served as the
Development Director for Bridge Street Theatre since
March of 2015.
JAY KERR (Cosme McMoon
and Musical Director) For most of his fifty-two
years in show business, Jay Kerr operated a music studio
in New York City, literally and figuratively between
Broadway and Carnegie Hall, where he arranged music,
worked with songwriters on new projects, instructed
singers for stage, cabaret, and recording (www.jaykerr.com),
and wrote songs and incidental music for cabaret and
theater. Beginning his professional musical career as a
church organist at the age of fourteen, Kerr held cue
cards for television’s Captain Kangaroo, produced
military and USO shows during the Vietnam conflict,
shared the bill with Bette Midler at New York’s
Continental Baths, coached Phil Silvers for his Tony
Award winning role in FORUM, wrote children’s musicals
for Broadway and television, taught in a military
school, parochial schools, acting schools and
universities, and served as the principal of a junior
high school. As a vocal instructor and voice coach, he
has shaped musical performances by, among many others,
Sandy Dennis, Tovah Feldshuh, Sally Ann Howes, Frank
Gorshin, Bob Gunton, James Naughton, Charlotte Rae, and
Joanne Woodward. Currently Artistic Director of Fort
Salem Theater in Washington County, Jay has worked with
Florence Hayle for over thirty years.
FLO
HAYLE (Director) Flo Hayle has participated in
all aspects of theatre throughout her career. And
accomplished and beloved cabaret singer, she has known
many of the greats including Elaine Stritch, Liza
Minelli, and Hildegarde. She has appeared in dozens of
plays and musicals including SOPHIE by Steve Allen and,
more recently, SENIOR MOMENTS at the Fort Salem Theater.
She has been seen in TV commercials for Total Cereal and
Volkswagen, among others. As a director and producer,
she was producing Off-Broadway long before there was
anything known as “Off-Broadway”, was casting director
for Muriel Cigars, Coppertone, and Maybelline, and
director of PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE at the Ghent
Playhouse. Flo hosts a weekly radio interview show
called “Arts Alive” on 98.5FM and 93.5FM.
JOHN SOWLE (Set and Light Designer) is
Managing Director of Bridge Street Theatre. He founded
Kaliyuga Arts in 1986 with his partner Steven Patterson
and has received multiple awards for his directing and
design work on their Los Angeles, San Francisco and New
York productions. Most recently he designed Bridge
Street Theatre’s production of “The Tavern,” and
directed and designed their productions of
“Frankenstein,” “Holiday Memories,” “The Epic of
Gilgamesh,” “The Killing & The Love Death” (late plays
of William Inge), and “Grinder’s Stand” by Oakley Hall
III. John has an undergraduate degree in mathematics
from M.I.T and a PhD in Dramatic Art from UC Berkeley.
CARMEN BORGIA (Sound Designer) is a
musician and sound designer. He has designed and mixed
films for PBS, HBO, IFC and many film festivals. He has
also released two CD's of his own work, "North" and "The
Red Circle Line". In 2009 his musical, SOUTH, premiered
at Dixon Place in New York City. He operates out of
studios in Catskill and The Bronx, doing
sound-for-picture work and music recording. He can be
found at Magpie Bookshop Saturday afternoons at his
Ukulele Camp, where anyone can learn to uke. He is also
a regular performer at the Catskill Farmers Market on
Sundays.
CAEDMON HOLLAND (Production
Stage Manager) is a 25-year old actor from
Delmar, NY. He grew up learning theater and at the age
of six started attending The New York State Theater
Institute’s summer theatre program. He continued with
this until the age of 14 when, during his high school
years, he started focusing more on film. At 19, Caedmon
transferred to the University of New Mexico in
Albuquerque. While there, he was part of the only
Western Theater school performance in the world to be
invited to participate in the First International Asian
Theater Festival in 2010. Caedmon graduated UNM with a
BA in Theater in December of 2014. Since then, he’s been
back home in upstate NY, performing locally with Bridge
Street Theatre in LUCKY LINDY and Kaaterskill Actors
Theater in CHRISTMAS IN JULY among others, and trying to
build his resume for a move to NYC or LA. He was also
Stage Manager for Bridge Street Theatre’s productions of
“The Tavern” and “Frankenstein.”
