Hershey Felder as GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE
The Award Winning International Production Comes to The Cleveland Play House
CLEVELAND (November 26, 2007) – George Gershwin, one of America’s greatest and most beloved composers who is credited with making a “lady out of jazz,” will return to the stage in the form of Hershey Felder as GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE at The Cleveland Play House. George Gershwin Alone will begin preview performances on Tuesday, January 15 and will be performed in the Drury Theatre through February 3, 2008.
Hershey Felder, actor, pianist, playwright and composer, has produced and staged George Gershwin Alone from Los Angeles to South Korea with stops on Broadway and in London’s West End having given some three thousand performances in major centres across the globe. George Gershwin Alone is directed by Joel Zwick, director of the film phenomenon My Big Fat Greek Wedding, among other box office hits.
George Gershwin Alone is a one-man “imagination with music” production about the life and music of the composer who brought the world such works as “A Rhapsody in Blue,” “An American in Paris” and Porgy and Bess. The award-winning and critically-acclaimed George Gershwin Alone presents what an evening may have been like in the presence of the great composer. This work represents the third movement of a trilogy about composers entitled “The Composer Sonata,” with each of the first two movements featuring the composer Ludwig van Beethoven, in Beethoven, As I Knew Him and Fryderyk Chopin in Monsieur Chopin.
The Los Angeles Stage Alliance recently awarded Hershey Felder with the 2007 Ovation Award for best actor and George Gershwin Alone for best musical, best lighting design and best sound design.
ABOUT GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE
To create this work, the Gershwin family gave Hershey Felder unfettered access to the artist’s manuscripts, personal and professional papers and recordings. Mr. Felder conducted further research with Gershwin family members, biographers, friends and associates and at the Library of Congress, which houses the entire George and Ira Gershwin family archives as well as the composer’s Steinway piano. Felder also studied Gershwin’s radio show recordings to capture his vocal approach to speech and song in the “jazz age.”
George Gershwin was born in 1898 to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York. Together, he and his brother, Ira, wrote standards such as “The Man I Love,” “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Embraceable You,” “Fascinating Rhythm,” “I Got Rhythm,” “S’Wonderful” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me.” His groundbreaking opera, “Porgy and Bess,” is now considered an American classic. All told, George Gershwin wrote more than one thousand songs for the stage and screen as well as works for the opera house and the symphony orchestra. In 1937, at the age of 38, Gershwin died of an undiagnosed brain tumor, never knowing how famous and beloved he and his work would become.
ABOUT HERSHEY FELDER (George Gershwin/Fryderyk Chopin/Playwright) Broadway, London’s West End: George Gershwin Alone (Helen Hayes Theatre, Duchess Theatre). Regional and international appearances include Monsieur Chopin: Chicago’s Royal George Theatre, Geffen Playhouse, Arizona Theatre Company, American Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, Ravinia Festival, The Old Globe Theatre; Command Performance for the Polish Ambassador to the United States, Polish Embassy, Washington; Uijeongbu Theatre Festival, South Korea. George Gershwin Alone: 2004-2005 Chicago; 1999-2007 at Ford’s Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, The Geffen (Best Musical and Best Actor, L.A. Ovations Awards), The Old Globe, Arizona Theatre Company, Prince Music Theatre (Philadelphia), Florida, The Gilmore Festival, Ravinia, El Paso, Uijeongbu, and others. Upcoming: Monsieur Chopin in Paris and Warsaw; the World Premiere of Beethoven As I Knew Him at The Old Globe, San Diego. Compositions include Fairytale, a musical; Les Anges de Paris, Suite for Violin and Piano; Song Settings, poetry by Vachel Lindsay; Aliyah, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Saltimbanques for Piano and Orchestra; Etudes Thematiques for Piano. Recordings include Love Songs of the Yiddish Theatre, Back from Broadway, and George Gershwin Alone and Monsieur Chopin for the WFMT Radio Network Recordings label. Worldwide live broadcast, George Gershwin Alone, July 2005. Current projects include the completion of the Composer Trilogy with Beethoven, as well as a Negaunee Foundation Chicago commission to complete Noah’s Ark, an opera. Mr. Felder is on the Board of Directors of the Chicago College of Performing Arts. He has also been a Scholar in Residence at Harvard University’s Department of Music. Mr. Felder is married to Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada.
ABOUT JOEL ZWICK
Joel Zwick directed My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the highest-grossing comedy of all time, produced by Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson and Gary Goetzman. Recent films include Fat Albert (with Bill Cosby), and Elvis Has Left the Building, starring John Corbett and Kim Basinger. Mr. Zwick directed the Broadway production of George Gershwin Alone at the Helen Hayes Theatre, as well as all other productions. Mr. Zwick began his theatrical career at La Mama E.T.C., as director of the La Mama Plexus. He has directed on Broadway, off-Broadway and Broadway touring companies. Currently, Mr. Zwick is recognized as Hollywood’s most prolific director of episodic television, having the direction of five hundred and twenty-five episodes to his credit. These include having directed twenty-one pilots, which have gone on to become regular series. Television shows include: Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, Bosom Buddies, Webster, Perfect Strangers, Full House, Step By Step, Family Matters, It’s a Living, Bros. Wayans, Joanie Loves Chachi, Jamie Fox, Kirk, Parent’ Hood, Angie, On Our Own, Two Of A Kind, Love Boat, Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper, etc. Previous New York productions have included Dance With Me (Tony nomination), Shenandoah (Broadway national tour), Oklahoma (national tour) and Cold Storage, (American Place Theater). He acted in the original New York production of MacBird. He directed Esther (Promenade Theater, NY), Merry-Go-Round (Chicago and Las Vegas), Last Chance Saloon and Woycek (West End, London). Mr. Zwick has taught drama at Yale University, Brooklyn College, Queens College, Wheaton College, and the University of Southern California. He is a graduate (B.A., M.A.) of Brooklyn College.
The production team for George Gershwin Alone includes Yael Pardess, Scenic Design; Michael Gilliam, Lighting Design; Jon Gottlieb, Sound Design; and Kenneth Cole, Wardrobe Design.
Founded in 1915, The Cleveland Play House is the first permanently established professional theatre in the United States. More than 12 million people have attended over 1,300 productions at The Play House – including more than 130 American and/or World Premieres. Today, under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Bloom and Managing Director Kevin Moore, The Cleveland Play House is an artist-driven theatre that serves the Greater Cleveland community by holding true to its mission:
To produce plays of the highest professional standards that inspire, stimulate, and entertain our diverse audiences, and to conduct training and educational programs that enhance the quality of life for those we serve and help to insure the future of theatre.
The Ohio Arts Council helps to fund The Cleveland Play House with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.
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FACT SHEET
What: Hershey Felder as GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE
Music by George Gershwin & Ira Gershwin
Book by Hershey Felder
Performed by Hershey Felder
Directed by Joel Zwick
Where: Drury Theatre, The Cleveland Play House, 8500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio
When: Preview Performance: Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Opening Night: Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Final Performance: Sunday, February 3, 2008
Who: Cast
George Gershwin……………………………………Hershey Felder
Creative Team
Director: Joel Zwick
Scenic Designer: Yael Pardess
Costume Designer: Kenneth Cole
Lighting Designer: Michael T. Gilliam
Sound Designer: Jon Gottlieb
Stage Manager: Gigi Garcia
Times: Tuesday-Saturday Evenings 8:00 pm
Saturday Matinee 3:00 pm
Sunday Matinee 2:00 pm
Weekday Matinee 1:30 pm, Thursday, January 31
No performances on Mondays.
Prices: Single ticket prices start at $39.00.
For Single Tickets: Call (216) 795-7000, ext. 4, or visit www.clevelandplayhouse.com
Alison Bibb-Carson
Associate Director of Communications and Marketing
The Cleveland Play House
8500 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44106
216.795.7000 x236
SEEINGISBELIEVING...www.clevelandplayhouse.com