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.