COMPOSER SONATA Bids Farewell to Drury Lane Water Tower Place, 12/31

Eighty-Eight Entertainment, Samantha F. Voxakis and Lee Kaufman present Hershey Felder's COMPOSER SONATA at Drury Lane Water Tower Place from November 13th through December 31st in a strictly limited engagement culminating in a special New Year's Eve Presentation of Hershey Felder's The Great American Song Book Sing-A-Long. These tour-de-force presentations, Beethoven, As I Knew Him; Monsieur Chopin and George Gershwin Alone; as well as The Great American Song Book Sing-A-Long, are written and performed by Hershey Felder and directed by Joel Zwick.

Hershey Felder is known to Chicago audiences for his seventy record-breaking weeks at Chicago's Royal George Theatre with his George Gershwin Alone and the World Premiere of Monsieur Chopin, as well as annual appearances at the Ravinia Festival. He now returns to what he has often called his favorite city in America with the best audiences in the world - Chicago - to complete his composer trilogy beginning with Beethoven, As I Knew Him. These works will be filmed during the Chicago run at Drury Lane Water Tower for New York's Razor and Tie Music Company for television broadcast and world-wide release.

Hershey Felder's Beethoven, As I Knew Him is a dramatization of a little known true story as told in 1870, forty-three years after Beethoven's passing, by the person who spent a good part of the maestro's last two years by his side. With a narrative spanning several generations, Hershey Felder combines his acting, piano and musical analytical skills to bring to life the character of Ludwig Van Beethoven as he existed through the eyes of one who knew him well. Featuring some of the composer's most famous works, including The Moonlight Sonata, The Pathetique Sonata, selections from Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 5 and 9, the Grosse Fugue, as well as a movement of Beethoven's great Emperor Concerto, Beethoven, As I Knew Him is a journey through time that will bring audiences closer to the genius of the maestro Ludwig Van Beethoven himself.

Monsieur Chopin is a celebrated work about the life and music of legendary composer, Frédéric Chopin. Audiences are invited to a private piano lesson that actually took place on March 4, 1848 in the opulent Parisian salon of the Polish maestro. As the lesson unfolds, Chopin reveals secrets about the art of the piano and composition, as well as secrets about himself. This intimate musical biography features Chopin's greatest works, including the Prelude in C Minor, Mazurka in A Flat Major, Polonaise in A Major, and his elegant Nocturnes. The presentation of Monsieur Chopin will also include the premiere of a newly-discovered cadenza in Chopin's own handwriting for his Nocturne in Eb, Opus 9/2. The cadenza was uncovered in the collection of one of his student's families, written in pencil on a first edition print of the Nocturne from 1834, when Chopin first started teaching in Paris.

A celebrated work about the legendary American composer, George Gershwin Alone is a delightful play with music that incorporates the Gershwins' best-known songs, from The Man I Love and Someone to Watch Over Me, through passages and songs from An American in Paris and Porgy and Bess, to a complete performance of Rhapsody in Blue. The first popular composer to use jazz as the foremost musical element in the serious concert hall, Gershwin absorbed the musical styles, rhythms and sophistication of the American spirit and created a musical language that made its mark on both classical and popular music throughout the world. Hershey Felder brings to life the spirit and talent of the legendary composer and pianist, leading audiences through the fascinating rhythms of Gershwin's legendary songbook, while telling the tale of his tragically short life.

Tickets for performances go on sale on Friday, July 31 at 10 a.m. and range in price from $55 - $60. Tickets for the special New Year's Eve performances are $100 for the 7 p.m. performance and $150 for the 10 p.m. performance. Tickets are available at Drury Lane Water Tower Place Box Office, box office charge-by-phone at (312) 642-2000, at all Ticketmaster ticket centers (including Hot Tix and select Carson Pirie Scott, Coconuts and fye stores), Ticketmaster charge by phone at (312) 559-1212 or online at ticketmaster.com. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more, please call GroupTix for reservations and more information at (877) 4-GRP-TIX or (877) 447-7849 or visit online at grouptix.net. 

Hershey Felder has performed George Gershwin Alone on Broadway, London's West End, The Old Globe, Ford's Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, the Geffen Theatre (2007 Los Angeles OVATION Awards: Best Musical and Best Actor), as well as at theaters in Philadelphia, Florida, and a year-long run at Chicago's Royal George Theatre and others totaling more than three thousand performances. His regional and international appearances include Monsieur Chopin at The Old Globe, the Royal George, American Repertory Theatre, the Ravinia Festival, the Geffen Theatre and Hartford Stage, The Arizona Theatre Company, as well as a Command Performance for the Polish Ambassador to the United States, Polish Embassy, Washington and the Uijeongbu Theatre Festival, South Korea. Beethoven, As I Knew Him had its world premiere at San Diego's Old Globe followed by presentations at the Geffen Theatre in Los Angeles and The Arizona Theatre Company in Tucson and Phoenix. Felder's compositions include Fairytale, a musical; Les Anges de Paris, Suite for Violin and Piano; Song Settings, poetry by Vachel Lindsay; Aliyah, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Hollywood Sweet, for piano and orchestra; Etudes Thematiques for piano. Recordings include Love Songs of the Yiddish Theatre, Back from Broadway, as well as George Gershwin Alone and Monsieur Chopin for the WFMT Radio Network Recordings label and Beethoven, As I Knew Him for his Eighty-Eight Entertainment label. Current projects include a Negaunee Foundation Chicago composition commission, and a new musical play, NINE HOURS ON TENTH, The Unknown Story of Abraham Lincoln's Last Day, Histoire D'Amour a Paris/A Paris Love Story and several compositions for piano and orchestra. Mr. Felder is on the Board of Directors of the Colburn School in Los Angeles, and the Chicago College of Performing Arts. He has also been a Scholar in Residence at Harvard University's Department of Music. Mr. Felder is married to Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada.

Joel Zwick directed My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time, produced by Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson and Gary Goetzman. Recent films include Fat Albert (with Bill Cosby), and Elvis Has Left the Building, starring John Corbett and Kim Basinger. Mr. Zwick directed the Broadway production of George Gershwin Alone at the Helen Hayes Theatre, as well as all other productions. Mr. Zwick began his theatrical career at La Mama E.T.C., as director of the La Mama Plexus. He has directed on Broadway, Off-Broadway and Broadway touring companies. Currently, Mr. Zwick is recognized as Hollywood's most prolific director of episodic television, having the direction of five hundred and twenty-five episodes to his credit. These include having directed twenty-one pilots, which have gone on to become regular series.

Television shows include: Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, Bosom Buddies, Webster, Perfect Strangers, Full House, Step By Step, Family Matters, It's a Living, Bros. Wayans, Joanie Loves Chachi, Jamie Fox, Kirk, Parent' Hood, Angie, On Our Own, Two Of A Kind, Love Boat, Hangin' With Mr. Cooper, etc. Previous New York productions have included Dance With Me (Tony nomination), Shenandoah (Broadway national tour), Oklahoma (national tour) and Cold Storage (American Place Theater). He acted in the original New York production of MacBird. He directed Esther (Promenade Theater, NY), Merry-Go-Round (Chicago and Las Vegas), Last Chance Saloon and Woycek (West End, London). Mr. Zwick has taught drama at Yale University, Brooklyn College, Queens College, Wheaton College, and the University of Southern California. He is a graduate (B.A., M.A.) of Brooklyn College.

For additional information on Hershey Felder's Composer Sonata please visit www.eightyeightentertainment.com

 

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