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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; If you&#8217;ve ever heard Meryl Streep sing, you know the accomplished actress has a strong and versatile voice.</p><p>So she may well have recently found herself in a situation similar to one in which <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/features/373173/celebrating-a-singer-so-bad-she-was-good" target="_blank">Kingston native Christine Donahue</a> found herself last year: A singer with a lovely voice deliberately sings &#8212; shall we say, less than sweetly &#8212; in the style of one Florence Foster Jenkins.</p><p>Streep stars in a movie about socialite Jenkins, who was born in 1868 in Wilkes-Barre and in 1944 filled Carnegie Hall with people who came to hear her sing, though her voice was, well, just so bad critics compared it to &#8220;Murder on the High C&#8217;s.&#8221;</p><p>Also appearing in the film are Hugh Grant as Jenkins&#8217; &#8220;husband&#8221;/manager St. Clair Bayfield and Simon Helberg &#8212; you may know him as Howard Wolowitz on television&#8217;s &#8220;The Big Bang Theory&#8221; &#8212; as her accompanist Cosme McMoon.</p><p>Stephen Frears, who also directed &#8220;The Queen&#8221; and &#8220;Philomena&#8221; was at the helm.</p><p>There&#8217;s no word yet on when the movie might be released in the United States, though Paramount Pictures reportedly acquired the rights to distribute it.</p><p>Donahue, who teaches on the music faculty at the University of Central Arkansas, hopes it will be released widely, in all parts of the country. &#8220;It better be released out here,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I&#8217;m very excited to see it.&#8221;</p><p>Last year Donahue appeared in the Kingston Historical Society&#8217;s production of &#8220;Souvenir,&#8221; a two-person play about Jenkins&#8217; life, and she admits it was fun to deliberately sing off-key. The show was held at Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Kirby Center for Creative Arts, where students were amazed to learn what Jenkins <a href="https://youtu.be/A61eRSc7S_M" target="_blank">sounded like.</a></p><p>With a larger cast, Donahue said, the movie is bound to explore more of Jenkins&#8217; story.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Christine Donahue </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_christinedona-6.jpg</photo0><caption0>Christine Donahue </caption0><photoCredit0>Submitted photo </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_florence.foster.jenkins-6.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Born to a wealthy family in Wilkes-Barre in 1868, Florence Foster Jenkins became a New York socialite and well-known singer. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_florence.foster.jenkins-6.jpg</photo1><caption1>Born to a wealthy family in Wilkes-Barre in 1868, Florence Foster Jenkins became a New York socialite and well-known singer. </caption1><photoCredit1>Library of Congress photo </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_merylasflorence-6.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant star in a still from the movie &#8216;Florence Foster Jenkins.&#8217; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_merylasflorence-6.jpg</photo2><caption2>Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant star in a still from the movie &#8216;Florence Foster Jenkins.&#8217; </caption2><photoCredit2>Library of Congress photo </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT.</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table class="mceItemTable" style="border:none;width:98%;"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;">A61eRSc7S_M</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;">YOUTUBE</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A61eRSc7S_M</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;"> &lt;iframe width=&#8221;560&#8221; height=&#8221;315&#8221; src=&#8221;https://www.youtube.com/embed/A61eRSc7S_M&#8221; frameborder=&#8221;0&#8221; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;"> Florence Foster Jenkins was famous for her awful singing, we asked some of the best singers we could find what they thought of her voice.</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;"> Aimee Dilger | Times Leader</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>

Meryl Streep stars in ‘Florence Foster Jenkins,’ a movie about a Wilkes-Barre native whose singing was dubbed ‘Murder on the High C’s’