HERSHEY FELDER AS GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE is Coming to TheatreWorks in February

Internationally-acclaimed actor, pianist, and filmmaker Hershey Felder will return to TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in the new year, performing a limited engagement of his hit solo show Hershey Felder as George Gershwin Alone. Captivating audiences around the world, including on Broadway, in London's West End, and more, Hershey Felder as George Gershwin Alone illuminates the life and music of the legendary tunesmith, who shaped a distinctly American style of music. This musical masterpiece shares the composer's story, including his brilliant and prolific partnership with his brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin, incorporating beloved songs from the popular hits “Fascinating Rhythm,” “I Got Rhythm,” “'S Wonderful,” and “They Can't Take That Away from Me,” to excerpts from his ground-breaking musicals Porgy and Bess and An American In Paris, and a complete performance of his opus “A Rhapsody In Blue.” 

 

Hershey Felder as George Gershwin Alone will be presented February 7-11, 2024 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. Tickets (starting at $37) are now available exclusively to TheatreWorks Season 53 subscribers and current donors (at the Inner Circle level+). Remaining tickets will become available to the public December 15. New subscribers to Season 53 (subscriptions start at $131) may also obtain early access, including Hershey Felder as George Gershwin Alone in a four or five show subscription package. For more information the public may visit TheatreWorks.org or call (877)-662-8978.

 

Felder returns to TheatreWorks after recently performing a sold-out, one-night-only benefit performance of Hershey Felder's Great American Songbook Sing-Along in October 2023. Upon hearing of the company's current Save TheatreWorks Now campaign, Felder donated his services and travel costs, flying in for a special event that raised more than $140,000 for the Tony Award recipient theatre company. Thanks to this boost from Felder, the company has now collected $2.5 million towards its goal of $3 million, which must be raised by the end of November so the company can complete its current season. Attendees at that fundraising event have also received early access to Hershey Felder as George Gershwin Alone tickets.

 

George Gershwin was born in 1898 to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents in Brooklyn and composed his first hit at age 21. All told, George Gershwin wrote more than 1,000 songs for the stage and screen, as well as works for the opera house and the symphony orchestra. Gershwin died of an undiagnosed brain tumor in 1937, at the age of 38, leaving behind a legion of bereft fans and an astonishing legacy of enduring music that has never dimmed in popularity. 

 

Hershey Felder as George Gershwin Alone has enthralled audiences around the world, including Broadway, London's West End, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and more, garnering praise from critics and audiences alike. “The quadruple-threat performer Hershey Felder—an actor, singer, pianist and writer, and all of the first order—has brought the quintessential American composer back to life,” said Chicago Sun-Times. The Mercury News called George Gershwin Alone “a heartfelt valentine to the American Songbook that goes down as smoothly as a bourbon Manhattan with a bright red cherry on top.” The San Francisco Chronicle lauded the show as “simply glorious,” noting Felder's “performance of the music is a delight from beginning to end - and beyond.”  

 

Hershey Felder as George Gershwin Alone features the music and lyrics of George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, with a book by Hershey Felder. The production is directed by Joel Zwick with associate direction by Trevor Hay.

 

Hershey Felder: American Theatre magazine has said, “Hershey Felder is in a category all his own.” Following 28 years of continuous stage work and over six thousand live performances throughout the U.S. and abroad, Hershey Felder created Live from Florence, an arts broadcasting company, which has produced more than a dozen theatrical films to date. They include the world premiere musicals Nicholas, Anna & Sergei, the story of Sergei Rachmaninoff; Puccini, the story of famed opera composer Giacomo Puccini; Before Fiddler, a musical story about writer Sholem Aleichem; and others, all benefiting theatres and arts organizations across the U.S.. Programming is currently available at www.hersheyfelder.net. Felder has given performances of his self-created solo productions at some of the world's most prestigious theatres and has consistently broken box office records. 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; Our Great Tchaikovsky; and A Paris Love Story. 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. Felder is the adaptor, director, and designer for the internationally performed play-with-music The Pianist of Willesden Lane with Steinway artist Mona Golabek; producer and designer for the musical Louis and Keely: ‘Live' at the Sahara, directed by Taylor Hackford; and writer and director for Flying Solo, featuring opera legend Nathan Gunn. Felder has operated a full-service production company 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.

 

Felder has become an enormous favorite among South Bay Area audiences through his appearances at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, where his stage productions have smashed box office records, including engagements of his wildly popular shows including Hershey Felder: Chopin in Paris, the regional premieres of Our Great Tchaikovsky and Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, and the World Premieres of Hershey Felder as Claude Debussy in A PARIS LOVE STORY and Hershey Felder: Beethoven. Just as in demand have been Felder's Great American Songbook Sing-Alongs, occasionally staged during his runs at TheatreWorks, all of which sold out immediately.

 

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, led by Artistic Director Giovanna Sardelli in partnership with Executive Director Debbie Chinn, presents a wide variety of contemporary plays and musicals, revitalizes great works of the past, and serves more than 100,000 patrons per year. Founded in 1970 by Robert Kelley, TheatreWorks has grown from a truly original Silicon Valley start-up to become one of the nation's leading professional non-profit theatre companies. TheatreWorks was honored as the recipient of the 2019 Regional Theatre Tony Award. TheatreWorks also champions new work, offering artists support and a creative home as they develop new stories for the American theatre. Offstage, TheatreWorks' arts education programs in local schools and arts engagement programs in Silicon Valley neighborhoods uplift its audiences and strengthen community bonds. Onstage and off, TheatreWorks welcomes the mosaic of people that embody the Bay Area and beyond, celebrating the transformative power of theatre to ignite imagination, inspire conversation, and enliven our souls.

 

Photo credit: Mark Garvin

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