Hershey Felder Opens UK Debut of OUR GREAT TCHAIKOVSKY at The Other Palace

Award-winning actor and pianist Hershey Felder presents the UK premiere of Our Great Tchaikovsky.

Featuring Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's most popular compositions including his Nutcracker Ballet, 1812 Overture, 6th Symphony and more. With a book by Felder, Our Great Tchaikovsky is a time-bending tale of music and politics and the story of one of the world's most beloved composers, directed by Felder collaborator Trevor Hay.

Our Great Tchaikovsky has broken box office records and garnered unanimous critical acclaim across the US since its debut in January of this year. A combination of this success and the current relevance of the themes explored has spurred Felder to bring this new show directly to the UK in place of the previously planned Bernstein/Berlin productions. Tchaikovsky's life story has a particular resonance for our times, and Felder's unique combination of theatrical performance and pianistic skill promises to bring Tchaikovsky to life in a completely original manner.

The composer of beautiful ballets Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, and ferocious and melodic symphonic works, piano concerti, overtures, operas and chamber music, a healthy 53-year-old Tchaikovsky conducted the premiere of his enigmatic Symphony No. 6, "Pathétique" in 1893 in St. Petersburg, and, nine days later, he was dead. To this day, how and why he died is still a mystery. Our Great Tchaikovsky endeavours to understand why this is still the case.

Recently named in TIME Magazine's top ten theatre artists for 2016, Hershey Felder has also previously brought to life the stories and music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, and George Gershwin, Irving Berlin and Leonard Bernstein. Felder also wrote, produced and directed last season's critically acclaimed, box office hit, The Pianist of Willesden Lane at the former St. James Theatre and now returns to newly named The Other Palace bringing a unique blend of piano virtuosity and musical biography with this latest production.

IF YOU GO:

Hershey Felder Our Great Tchaikovsky

21 September-22 October
Official Press Night: Tonight 26 September, 7pm

At The Other Palace, 12 Palace St, Westminster, London SW1E 5JA

Prices: £22.50 | £35 | £39.50
Tickets and information: www.theotherpalace.co.uk | 0207 087 7900

Book by Hershey Felder; Scenic Design: Hershey Felder; Lighting & Projection Design: Christopher Ash; Costume Design: Abigail Caywood, Directed by Trevor Hay; Produced by Samantha F. Voxakis, Karen Racanelli, Erik Carstensen with Tom Wirtshafter with Fane Productions.

Hershey Felder (Tchaikovsky/The Artist/Playwright) Recently named to Time Magazine's 2016 Top 10 Plays and Musicals, Hershey Felder has played over 4,500 performances of his self-created solo productions at some of the world's most prestigious theatres and has broken box office records consistently. 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 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; as well as producer and designer for the musical Louis and Keely: 'Live' at the Sahara, directed by Taylor Hackford; and writer and director for the upcoming Flying Solo, featuring opera legend Nathan Gunn, as well as two solo stage works, Women on a Ledge, for harpist Rita Costanzi, and The Story of My Cello for cello virtuoso, Antonio Lysy. Current upcoming composition projects include: EDITH, an opera, based on the story of British nurse Edith Cavell; a Washington Irving musical, and Chosen By God, a musical journey based on journalist Joshua Hammer's memoir. 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 Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin. 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 Tharpe'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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