The final performance at the Westport Country Playhouse
of “Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin”
was last night and we were lucky enough to be there. It was a poignant and persuasive reminder that
this nation is a nation of immigrants.
It took a Jewish immigrant from Russia to
write such classics as “God bless America “and “White Christmas” two of the top
selling pieces of music of all time.
Felder traces Irving Berlin’s life having written not
only the Book for this production, but he acts, sings, and as an accomplished
concert pianist, accompanies himself. It
is a one man theatrical triumph with a beautiful set (a representation of Berlin's New York City Beekman Place apartment) and lighting by the
Westport Country Playhouse where we’ve attended performances for more than 40
years during the summers..
In addition to those two classics previously mentioned,
Felder’s bio-musical tells Berlin’s story in a score of songs, including “Alexander's
Ragtime Band",” My Wife's Gone to the Country - Hooray! Hooray!” (Seriously,
Berlin could make up a song just about anything and Felder engages the audience
with this one, allowing us to sing the “Hooray! Horray! refrain), ”Oh, How I
Hate to Get Up in the Morning”, “A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody”, “What’ll I
Do?”, “Blue Skies”, “Say It Isn’t So”,”Puttin’ On the Ritz”, “Supper Time” (a
song about racial violence, sung by Ethel Waters) and “There’s No Business Like
Show Business” from one of his most memorable and enduring Broadway hit
musicals, Annie Get Your Gun (which
he was enlisted to write at the last moment by the Gershwin Brothers as the
intended composer, Jerome Kern, had died). Incidentally, Felder does a great Ethel Merman
imitation!
Felder traces Irving Berlin’s life in chronological order
starting with his birth somewhere in the Russian empire, his family’s escape
from the Russian pogroms and their arrival at Ellis Island when was only five
years old, and his beginnings in music as a singing waiter.
He had two marriages, his first wife dying
soon after their marriage, and his second from one of the wealthiest families
in America -- a marriage to which her family of course strongly objected. He lost his only son in his infancy and had
three daughters. These facts are woven into
the incredible musical accomplishments of his life.
The evening is further enhanced thanks to the
astute direction of Trevor Hay who cleverly embeds scenes from movies, still
photographs and other emotionally relevant images and sounds on a large “mirror”
and wall behind Felder.
But foremost is Felder’s spirited and talented portrayal
of Berlin – in song, in piano performance, and acting, capturing the essence of
the man and an era, underscoring the importance of Berlin to the Great American
Songbook. Indeed, as Jerome Kern said “he
IS American music.”
Remarkably, his composition and performance abilities
were all self-taught. He wrote all his
songs in F Sharp and they had to be transposed for most performances. It is a most unlikely story, the immigrant
songwriter who couldn’t read music and ultimately wrote some of the most iconic
American songs. Felder’s story
emphasizes his contributions to both the WW I and WW II war efforts. Simply put, he loved America!
Berlin’s times, of course, had its own societal
afflictions and horrors, and except for a few brief moments here and there, referring
to the depression, and racial segregation and prejudice, and a little about
anti-Semitism from his father in law, Felder mostly avoids those issues. But this is meant to be more of a “feel good”
bio-musical, and the author/performer sticks to his mission.
Felder’s ability to tell this story as an integrated
musical performance has, I think, matured over the years. About 15 years ago we saw him perform his
first bio-musical Gershwin Alone at The
Cuillo Centre for the Arts in West Palm Beach which ironically has now been
transformed into the home that Dramaworks now occupies. We loved that show as well, but I recall it was
not so much a biographically integrated theatre piece as this one of Berlin as
it was more reliant on Felder’s considerable talent as a concert pianist. His Irving
Berlin show tells the life story seamlessly through his acting, singing,
and playing. In other words, it meets
the test of the modern Broadway musical although only one person, but, oh, what
a remarkably talented person he is.
The thousands of songs Berlin wrote during his long
career, which included more than a score of Broadway shows and Hollywood
musicals tapped into feelings and tunes that appealed to his generation and
succeeding ones, and Felder frequently engages the audience to sing along. As he said after the show in a casual Q &
A, there are basically three players in his piece, he, the piano and the
audience.
After more than 1-1/2 hours without intermission and a
standing ovation, he still had the enthusiasm and energy to spend another half
hour with the audience amusingly fielding questions. It was like talking to your best friend, but
one with exceptional gifts.
We look forward to his future works, including a new play
featuring the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Sign us up!
And so after such a satisfying evening we followed the
winding roads of Westport back to our boat as a thunderstorm was gathering in
the west. Luckily, we beat it “home.”
