Hershey Felder Continues To Shatter Box Office Records

Award-winning actor and piano virtuoso Hershey Felder broke box office records this month at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts during his engagement of Hershey Felder: BEETHOVEN. The show broke the theater's record as the highest grossing ticket sales for a multiple-week event with over 11,000 audience members attending BEETHOVEN during its four-week run. Hershey Felder: BEETHOVEN had previously broken box office records during its World Premiere of this new adaptation at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in June of 2017.

Mr. Felder - who has made a singular career writing and performing solo shows about great composers from Beethoven to Berlin - returns to New York this week with Hershey Felder AS Irving Berlin, a widely-acclaimed show that also routinely sells out at theaters across the U.S. Previews begin August 24 prior to an official press opening September 5 Off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters.

Hershey Felder AS Irving Berlin has a book by Hershey Felder and is directed by Trevor Hay. The show depicts the remarkable talent and unprecedented career of one of America's greatest and most beloved songwriters, Irving Berlin - who was 5 years old when his Jewish family immigrated to the U.S. after they were persecuted by the Russian Empire in the late 1800's. It features the composer's most popular and enduring songs such as "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Always," "Blue Skies," "God Bless America," "Puttin' on the Ritz," "There's No Business Like Show Business," and "White Christmas."

Hershey Felder AS Irving Berlin features scenic design by Felder and Hay, lighting design by Richard Norwood, projection design by Lawrence Siefert and sound design/production management by Erik Carstensen. The show is produced by Eva Price, Samantha F. Voxakis and Karen Racanelli, in association with The Town Hall.

Tickets $25-$70 (59E59 Members $25-$49) can be purchased online at www.59e59.org, by phone by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 (12:00-8:00 PM daily), or in person at the 59E59 Theaters box office, from Noon-6:00 PM. Hershey Felder AS Irving Berlin is featured as a part of the 59E59 Theaters subscription series. 59E59 Theaters is located at 59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues.

Hershey Felder: BEETHOVEN is based on the original Aus dem Schwarzspanierhaus by Dr. Gerhard von Breuning with text by Felder and features some of Beethoven's greatest compositions such as the Emperor Concerto, the 5th and 9th Symphonies, his keyboard sonatas and chamber music selections. The production is an extraordinary one-man musical play that brings the composer to life as it dramatizes the true story of a Viennese doctor who, as Beethoven's best friend's son, spent his boyhood by the Maestro's side. Directed by Joel Zwick, the production was presented by Samantha F. Voxakis, Karen Racanelli and Erik Carstensen.

Hershey Felder (Irving Berlin/Playwright/Co-Design) Named to Time Magazine's 2016 Top 10 Plays and Musicals, Hershey Felder has played over 5,000 performances of his self-created solo productions at some of the world's most prestigious theatres over the last 25 years, consistently breaking box office records. American Theatre Magazine has said, "Hershey Felder is in a category all his own." His shows include: George Gershwin Alone (Broadway's Helen Hayes Theatre, West End's Duchess Theatre); Monsieur Chopin; Beethoven; Maestro (Leonard Bernstein); Franz Liszt in Musik, Lincoln: An American Story, Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, and Our Great Tchaikovsky. His newest work, Hershey Felder: A PARIS LOVE STORY, featuring the music of Claude Debussy, will premiere in 2019 at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley followed by engagements at the Wallis Annenberg Center in Los Angeles and the Laguna Playhouse. His compositions and recordings include Aliyah, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Fairytale, a musical; Les Anges de Paris, Suite for Violin and Piano; Song Settings; Saltimbanques for Piano and Orchestra; Etudes Thematiques for Piano; and An American Story for Actor and Orchestra. Hershey is the adaptor, director and designer for the internationally performed play with music, The Pianist of Willesden Lane with Steinway Artist Mona Golabek, as well as producer and designer for the musical Louis and Keely: 'Live' at the Sahara, directed by Taylor Hackford. He has just opened his new production as writer/director/designer of Flying Solo, featuring opera legend Nathan Gunn. Current upcoming composition projects include The Story of My Cello, a solo work for cello virtuoso Antonio Lysy, as well as a musical adaptation of the book OUT ON A LEDGE by Eva Libitzky. Hershey has operated the full-service Production Company Hershey Felder Presents since 2001. He has been a scholar-in-residence at Harvard University's Department of Music and is married to Kim Campbell, the first female Prime Minister of Canada.

Trevor Hay (Director) directed the world premieres of An American Story for Actor and Orchestra, Abe Lincoln's Piano, Hershey Felder As Franz Liszt In Musik and Our Great Tchaikovsky. He is Associate Director for Mona Golabek's "The Pianist of Willesden Lane." Former member of the historic Old Globe Theatre in San Diego where, at the age of nine, his first position was selling Old Globe memorabilia. Over the next 32 years, Mr. Hay went on to various aspects of production on more than 80 presentations, including the Broadway productions of Jack O'Brien's Damn Yankees, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Twyla Tharp's The Times They Are A-Changin'. Included in his 23 seasons at The Old Globe were eleven seasons of the Summer Shakespeare Festival Repertory, as well as work on Tracy Letts' August: Osage County, directed by Sam Gold, and Hershey Felder's George Gershwin Alone, Monsieur Chopin, and Maestro Bernstein.

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