 |
| Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin (courtesy Hershey Felder Presents) |
Hershey Felder as
Irving Berlin
Seattle Repertory Theatre
Through March 18, 2018
Oy gevalt! (Holey moley!) So much meshugah schmaltz in this
story! (So much crazy chicken-fat!) A schlemiel (a nobody) turns into one of
the great American song writers and Hershey Felder tells you all about Israel
Beilin growing up to become Irving Berlin.
There is a bit of a rocky start to the biographical one-man
show as you get used to Hershey Felder’s delivery. It’s very New York and a bit
odd, as sometimes his voice gets elliptical and weirdly low and at first his
piano-playing is uneven. But then… But then, a kind of hypnotic charm flows
from him and the character deepens and the storytelling and the unbelievably
good music of Irving Berlin peeks out and starts working its magic.
Felder is a connoisseur of one-man biographical
presentations. He’s created evenings about George Gershwin, Chopin, Beethoven,
Leonard Bernstein and is creating one about Claude Debussy for an April, 2019
production. He has toured this evening of Irving Berlin music since 2014.
Felder starts our journey on a “unit set” (it’s a set that
does not change and is “one place”) of Irving Berlin’s living room appointed in
such a way that it’s clearly Christmas-time. We hear carolers singing a Berlin
song. Felder talks to a wheelchair bound Berlin – but the chair is empty. It’s
almost like a Clint Eastwood moment. He tells the chair that he’s going to
invite the carolers in because they don’t even know the history of what they’re
singing. Of course, the carolers are us.
Felder explains he is the “younger” Berlin and tells us of
his history in becoming the well-off and well-known Irving Berlin. He describes
as impoverished a life start as any impoverished person can have. While the
evening tends a little toward a Wikipedia entry come to life (Felder is careful
to date and time everything), Felder also contextualizes society’s attitudes
and prejudices, as well.
The set, a handsome living room, is designed by Felder as
well, and the walls and large portrait over the fireplace look fixed.
But wonderful projections by Christopher Ash and Lawrence Siefert change the
look of the wall entirely. Pictures of Berlin’s early life or projections of
movies flow across the wall immersing us in the descriptions in a visceral way.
Clips of movies that Berlin participated in, and moments of
his songs, remind us of how many iconic moments this man has brought our
country and even the world. The anti-Semitism he faced, and the barriers he had
to overcome, are stuff of legend, and make for compelling storytelling.
Felder plays us songs and tells us details, many amusing,
about Berlin’s struggles and his triumphs. There are also stories of the songs
that some person or other rejected that landed in his storage, somewhere, maybe
a piano bench, and never saw the light of day. Or, like “God Bless America,”
they saw daylight only after years had passed and for some reason Berlin was
led to dig it out.
Yes, there are Sing-A-Longs! Yes, you’ll just have to sing
with ‘em! It’s infectious. And even for this reviewer, a tear-jerker. By the
end of the evening, I double-dare you not to have fallen in love with this
production and the evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment
This is a moderated comment section. Any comment can be deleted if the moderator feels that basic civility standards are not being met. Disagreements, however, if respectfully stated, are certainly welcome. Just keep the discussion intelligent and relatively kind.