Interview: Hershey Felder of HERSHEY FELDER'S GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK SING-ALONG: A ONE-NIGHT ONLY BENEFIT FOR THEATREWORKS at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley

You know that old saw about how you only learn who your true friends are when the chips are down? Well, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley couldn’t hope for a better friend than internationally-acclaimed pianist, actor, composer & filmmaker Hershey Felder. When the Tony-winning theater company launched its critical fundraising campaign “Save TheatreWorks Now” with a goal of raising $3 million by this November in order to complete its 53rd season, Felder immediately jumped in to help. On October 11th, he will be performing Hershey Felder’s Great American Songbook Sing-Along: A One-Night-Only Benefit for TheatreWorks. In this special musical event, he will share stories and lead the audience through a century of American music, featuring songs by beloved composers such as Irving Berlin, the Gershwins, Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, and even feature songs made famous by Elvis Presley.

TheatreWorks’ new Artistic Director, Giovanna Sardelli, says, “We are so grateful to Hershey for stepping up to save TheatreWorks, and for his longtime partnership with our company. Hershey has long been a great favorite among our audiences, and we know everyone will enjoy joining with him in song and community for this one-night engagement.” Happily, TheatreWorks recently announced they were more than three-quarters of the way toward reaching their fundraising goal. While additional donations are still needed, Felder’s performance will certainly help them get significantly closer to that $3 million goal.

The Canadian-born and raised, European-based Felder has enjoyed one of the most idiosyncratic careers I can think of, progressing from child piano prodigy to actor to theater maker to filmmaker. He has performed on Broadway, in the West End and across the U.S. in hit solo shows such as George Gershwin Alone, Our Great Tchaikovsky, Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin and Chopin in Paris, which also played to sold-out houses at TheatreWorks, setting new set box office records there with each engagement. When COVID made live performance impossible, Felder pivoted to producing enormously successful livestreams from gorgeous Italian locations. This past year, he composed an opera that premiered in a 2,000 year-old Roman amphitheater in Fiesole, Italy, just outside of Florence where he maintains his primary residence. And as if that weren’t enough, he was recently appointed the first Artistic Director & Manager of the new Teatro della Signoria in Florence. Operating out of a beautifully renovated 18th-Century Theater near the famous Piazza della Signoria, he will oversee an ambitious program of opera, theater, music and dance beginning in September 2024.

I had a delightful conversation with Felder last week from a heat-drenched Austin, Texas where he was performing the show that first brought him to prominence, George Gershwin Alone. This was something like the tenth time I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing him, and yet somehow the man is always full of surprises. This time I learned the secret behind his preternatural ability to connect with an audience. We also talked about why he’s so happy to support TheatreWorks, the challenges he is seeing throughout the theater world these days, and the recent premiere of his opera The Fourth Man which starred the estimable baritone Nathan Gunn. The following conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

How were you initially approached by TheatreWorks to help out?

I got an email from them about the change in directorship. Giovanna Sardelli who’s a kind and smart person was handed the gig and I was so pleased for that, cause sometimes organizations don’t look within, they somehow think they’re gonna find someone better from without. Giovanna was the right person and she was right there! I’m glad she was given the opportunity because she deserves it.

And then because I’m somebody who’s been “part of the family” for quite a few years there, they called to let me know that this press release would be going out that there’s been [financial] trouble, and they wanted me to know before I read about it. So I said, “How can I help? I’m gonna be in the neighborhood after LA, but I can certainly come up. What would you like me to do? How can I raise money?” and so on, and that’s how that came about. It was literally one conversation. And I said I will give everything, pay my own flight, my own lodging. I didn’t want them to get charged for anything related to me so that they could take a hundred percent towards the operations of the theater.

Even though it’s a fundraiser, I insisted that TheatreWorks make some tickets available at $45, which is lower than anything else they’ve done. I said, “You need to make sure that the general public still has a chance to go.” Now, everybody may not have an opportunity because those tickets may be sold out, but they may be sold out at a higher price, too. The idea is to offer tickets to people who love the theater and want to go but can’t pay $500 for a benefit. It’s important because that’s the audience that’s coming back [for the regular season], and you want to know that your $45 ticketholder is coming back.

Regional theaters everywhere in the U.S. are really struggling right now, and that’s where you’ve made a lot of your career here in the States. That must give you an interesting perspective into what’s going on in American theater right now.

I’ve seen a lot, because I’m a commercial producer who has worked in the regional theater scene, the not-for-profit scene. I produce commercially and I bring that product to them. I created a model that works in this situation because it is low risk, low expense and high yield - if it works. For many that’s a great thing, but for others it’s like “Oh, that can’t possibly be real art because of its high yield.” Right? So it’s a complicated balance, but I have seen the inner workings of a hundred organizations, literally. We are going through a very difficult period where there is a transition, and transition requires time, knowledge and experience.

The important thing is not to think that all the years that came before naturally lead to what’s coming now. They don’t. We have to look at what the reality is, and reality is not necessarily bad if you deal with it. One of the things I laud TheatreWorks for is not pretending that this is not going on, and sort of trying to cover it up or gloss over the situation. I applaud them for saying, “We’re in trouble, this is the trouble we’re in and this is how we have to deal with it. And if you find value in this, please help us.” Now granted, theater has survived 2,000 years. The Greeks gave us a gift and if it’s survived for 2,000 years it’s obviously been for a reason, it’s that humanity needs it. But it reinvents itself, and sometimes it’s a real smack in the face to have to deal with that.

When I started with the Gershwin show, kids coming with their parents were 10 and 12 years old. They’re now 40. Their priorities have changed. And people who were in their 50s and 60s and finding the Gershwin material attractive 30 years ago are now 80, some are 90! When I premiered the Gershwin show, most of the prominent people who came to that, people who knew Gershwin, people who were there for the Golden Era of Hollywood, they’re now gone.

Which doesn’t mean that a character like Gershwin doesn’t hold interest for the future, but we have to deal with the reality of the passage of time, of things that have changed. I’m only giving you an example of my own work, but we can’t assume that because something worked really well 30 years ago, that it’s gonna work now. It doesn’t. Everything has shifted. What has kept me going is the moment I saw that our model won’t work during COVID because nobody was going to the theater, I figured out something else to do, and I figured out a model that would work for that thing, and would work fast and properly.

I somehow only recently realized that the regional theater model I grew up with was invented basically in my own lifetime.

Exactly!

Somehow I’d assumed it had existed for hundreds of years, but that’s not true.

Not true at all! That model was invented in our lifetime.

For instance, TheatreWorks has been around for 53 years now, and I’m older than 53 so its entire history happened in my lifetime.

Exactly! And I am 55 so TheatreWorks happened in our time. All these theaters happened in our time, so this is something that was an invention. We grew up in the Golden era, you know. We really had something very special and it’s important to want to hang on to that something very special. But there’s also the importance of dealing with the reality. And it’s not just times are changing culturally, or revolution is happening and things need to change in the country. This is why I’m helping TheatreWorks. They’re prepared to deal with the reality as it’s coming to them. They’re looking at their budgeting, they’re looking very carefully at what they’re gonna do next season so that this mistake doesn’t repeat itself.

Can you tell me more about the particular program you have planned for the TheatreWorks benefit on October 11th? It’s not one of the composer portraits that you’re so well known for.

Well, it’s a lot of storytelling and getting the audience to sing at every opportunity. So they don’t just have to sing you know one song every 20 minutes, but they get to sing all the way through. And you find soloists [in the audience]. It’s about making a living room event in a big theater. It’s a lot of fun.

I come from a family of choir directors, so I grew up with the concept of sing-alongs just being a normal thing that everyone did, but I fear they’ve almost become a lost art. Did you have that same tradition growing up in Montreal?

Of course! I mean, this is the period we grew up in, singing around the table, singing in synagogue, singing with friends, singing after events – always, always, always.

When I saw you do George Gershwin Alone at TheatreWorks last February, I came in knowing that you’re a phenomenal pianist and actor, but what I found so unexpectedly moving was your ability to truly connect with the audience.

That’s my thing, really.

This may be an impossible question to answer, but how did you develop that ability? Did it just come naturally to you? Is it something you actively work to get better on?

Well, you always work to get better on stuff like that, but it’s a natural thing I share with the audience, and that is just to talk to them. It’s where I have always, since I’m a kid, been most comfortable, standing on a stage and just talking to them. It’s where I’m most free to be intimate and I can’t tell you why that is. I honestly don’t know. It’s nothing I ever planned. The larger the crowd, the more intimate I make it feel and the more comfortable I am being intimate and honest and so forth. It’s the place I’m the most honest. I’m very stilted in real life because I’m always uncomfortable.

No, really?!

It’s true! I’m always uncomfortable, I’m always sure I’m saying the wrong thing, I’m always going “Oh, no, what did I do now?” Always questioning, banging my head against the wall, “Well, that was the wrong thing to do!” And somehow onstage it never feels wrong. I can’t tell you why it’s so easy for me. It’s a feeling of liberation, whatever I do onstage. Even if I make a bad joke and people go “Ooooh!” I have so much fun even getting out of that.

You seem to be especially comfortable playing at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.

Well, here’s the thing. Interestingly, the larger the hall the better off I am. I don’t know why, but being out in front of 20,000 people where I played at Ravinia, it’s just so, so comfortable. Or the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago with I think 3,800 seats? Completely comfortable! It’s just like “Oh, this is fun!” And I must appear like a little dot on that stage – or a booger on the stage or something like that! [laughs] And yet it’s completely comfortable and effervescent and fun, and I don’t know where that came from.

Through it all, I’ve learned how to remove any artifice. A very dear friend who’s a famous actress and I were talking one night and she said, “Any moment where I feel I’m acting, I stop acting.” Ya know? She said, “I just shut down and just stop, and just be me.” That’s putting in words what I’ve done my whole life. Stop doing things that appear like a performance, just be. The truth is, my art has become being, not doing. And – it takes a whole lifetime of doing to be. [laughs] But that’s what my goal is now. And it’s never easy, but the moment I feel myself acting, I stop.

That’s fascinating to me. Because obviously you have to be a little bit larger than life or your performance won’t register to the back of the theater, but I feel like as a performer you always know when to pull back.

Absolutely, and that is also about being. And it’s not just when to pull back, it’s how not to be too big. I think that is so important. “Stop showing off,” that’s what I tell myself. Showing off is easy, it’s garbage, it doesn’t mean anything. Just tell them the story and tell it from the most honest place you have. All the other stuff falls into place. If you know your character, you know what he’s supposed to be doing, it’s gonna be honest. That’s it. And what did somebody say? – The whole thing is being sincere, and once you learn how to fake that, you’ve got it made! [laughs]   

I have to ask about your new opera, The Fourth Man, which starred the incredible Nathan Gunn. It’s based on such an intriguing true story about three carabinieri (policemen) who gave their lives to save ten Italian civilians being held by Nazis in the summer of 1944, and apparently some of it happened right in the theater in Fiesole where your opera premiered this past July. What was that experience like?

Ah, that was fun. It really worked. It was very moving to tell that story to people to whom the story happened in the place where it happened. And the family of the survivors were there. I mean, it was something. It’s going to be made into a feature film next season.

You always have so many irons on the fire. What other projects do you have coming up?

I’ll send you the news that I just posted on Facebook. It’s really something! It’s kind of a national story, well it’s an international story. But it’s a good one! You’ll see…

Okay, great. I can’t wait to find out!

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Postscript: Felder sent me an announcement that he had posted on Facebook about his exciting new venture. He has been named Artistic Director & Manager of the Teatro della Signoria in Florence, Italy. An 18th-Century Theater that had long fallen into disuse smack in the center of town is being beautifully restored. Under Felder’s direction, the company will present a full array of opera, theater, dance and music performances. Stay tuned for more details on that in the coming months!

(all photos courtesy of Hershey Felder Presents)

Hershey Felder’s Great American Songbook Sing-Along: A One-Night-Only Benefit for TheatreWorks will be performed live at 7:30pm on Wednesday, October 11, 2023 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. For information or to order tickets visit theatreworks.org/hershey or call (877)-662-8978.

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