As Florence Foster Jenkins, Academy Award-winning actress Meryl Streep portrays a woman whose drive to support the musical arts kept her alive for decades longer than her diagnosis should have allowed. The program for Jenkins’ daring performance at Carnegie Hall — undoubtedly the worst vocal performance ever on that stage — is now the most requested program in the entire Carnegie Hall archives. Her vanity recordings on the Melotone label (be sure to listen!) were the label’s largest sellers. Free tickets to the Carnegie Hall concert went to 1,000 US military personnel in honor of their WWII service. And Mrs. Jenkins sang courageously, despite her utter incompetence.
“People may say I can’t sing, but no one can say I didn’t sing,” said Mrs. Jenkins.
Be sure to catch this uplifting film, which opened this week. And then ask yourself: “What is it that ‘I can’t do’ and could still go ahead to do?” Then: Do it!
