Florence Foster Jenkins: The Original William Hung?

Souvenir: A Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins opens at Lyric Stage Friday night. Tickets are available at the Lyric Stage website.

Okay, okay, the comparison is way too easy to make, but you've probably never heard of Florence Foster Jenkins, so we had to go there. Jenkins was a socialite so wealthy and so deluded that she was able to command a performance at Carnegie Hall in 1944 - even though she couldn't sing a lick.

Lyric Stage is resurrecting Florence Foster Jenkins with the play Souvenir, written by by Stephen Temperley and starring Leigh Barrett. The comedy tells the story of Jenkins' improbable success through the eyes of her trusty pianist, Cosme McMoon (Will McGarrahan).

You can hear samples of Jenkins' "singing" on her MySpace page. Yes, her MySpace page. Someone out there is an absolute genius. Her record label is "indie," of course.

What's best about this play is that the subject was real, and it's reassuring to know that our culture hasn't really gone to hell in a handbasket. There always were and always will be talentless people who have somehow convinced themselves they are talented.

Image of Leigh Barrett as Florence Foster Jenkins from the Lyric Stage website.