![\"\"](\"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/George-Gershwin.jpg\")
<\/a>Hershey Felder portrays the legendary composer in \u201cGeorge Gershwin Alone\u201d at Berkeley Rep. Photo: Mark Garvin.<\/p><\/div>\n
Hershey Felder may be channeling George Gershwin.<\/p>\n
If that\u2019s not what\u2019s going on, he must at least be sensing the composer\u2019s fascinating rhythms through the fingertips of both hands.<\/p>\n
He also has a nuanced, carefully researched understanding of Gershwin\u2019s colorful, truncated life.<\/p>\n
The charismatic performer exhibits all that as he plays the musical genius\u2019 melodies on a concert grand Steinway, and dramatizes tidbits of his bio, in a solo 90-minute Berkeley Rep show titled \u201cGeorge Gershwin Alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The work is an outgrowth of five years of study (interviewing family members and biographers, perusing correspondence and checking out original manuscripts, listening to old audio recordings).<\/p>\n
Felder\u2019s been touring the show across the globe for 13 years (including a Broadway stint).<\/p>\n
But he jokes that what came before this run was merely preliminary \u2014 practice sessions for his East Bay appearance.<\/p>\n
He also claims he\u2019s tired.<\/p>\n
So many performances (3,000 and counting), yet to me he\u2019s as fresh as if this were his world premiere.<\/p>\n
My wife, a highly talented jazz pianist and \u201cspoke-alist\u201d who\u2019s performed in countless senior venues in Marin, San Francisco, Sonoma and the East Bay, labels him a virtuoso.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m biased, of course, but, considering her skill level, I find the pronouncement high praise indeed.<\/p>\n
Not to mention astute \u2014 and accurate.<\/p>\n
She particularly lauds his flying fingers and classical flourishes, and calls him \u201ca confident pianist, confident vocalist, confident raconteur.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll add \u201cconfident humorist.\u201d<\/p>\n
The show\u2019s prime conceit of having Felder inhabit Gershwin\u2019s persona works divinely, thank you, except for the moments he\u2019s depicting the composer\u2019s death at age 38 from an undiagnosed brain tumor. They\u2019re awkward.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, Felder doesn\u2019t end the show that way.<\/p>\n
He plays \u201cRhapsody in Blue\u201d at length instead, then involves the audience in a boisterous, half-hour sing-along \u201cencore\u201d (which includes an \u201cIt Ain\u2019t Necessarily So\u201d call-and-response and an uproarious, unfamiliar novelty tune penned with Irving Berlin).<\/p>\n
The bulk of the show, naturally, focuses on standards \u2014 in addition to excerpts from \u201cPorgy and Bess,\u201d \u201cAn American in Paris\u201d and Gershwin\u2019s concerto: \u201cS\u2019Wonderful,\u201d \u201cEmbraceable You,\u201d \u201cOur Love Is Here to Stay,\u201d \u201cThe Man I Love,\u201d \u201cI Got Rhythm\u201d and \u201cThey Can\u2019t Take That Away from Me.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the character study also pinpoints the composer\u2019s flaring insecurity when berated by movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn for not writing tunes simple enough to whistle \u2014 a la Irving Berlin.<\/p>\n
And his anger after being targeted by auto tycoon Henry Ford\u2019s anti-Semitic rants.<\/p>\n
Although Gershwin\u2019s legend has outlasted such commentaries (probably because he wrote more than 1,000 tunes), his fame, according to some other critics, was mainly due to Ira\u2019s lyrics \u2014 or stemmed from the luck of having superstar Al Jolson sing his first hit, \u201cSwanee.\u201d<\/p>\n
This tour de force starts with poignant chord-less notes from \u201cPorgy,\u201d the composer\u2019s jazz opera about poor Southern blacks that initially flopped and caused the affluent son of immigrants to lose his shirt.<\/p>\n
And it glimpses a childhood in which Gershwin wandered \u201cthe streets of lower Manhattan with my hoodlum friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Felder also touches on the composer\u2019s tenure as a rehearsal pianist with the \u201cZiegfeld Follies\u201d (\u201cthey used to call us piano pimps\u201d), and he deftly performs duets with antique recordings of Gershwin and Jolson.<\/p>\n
His anecdotes, for the most part, are extremely amusing.<\/p>\n
Such as his recounting Gershwin\u2019s father (a cutter of shoes) mistakenly believing \u201cFascinating Rhythm\u201d to be \u201cFashion on the River.\u201d<\/p>\n
Felder, who created his own book for this show, is abetted by the smooth direction of Joel Zwick, who\u2019d spearheaded the comedy film \u201cMy Big Fat Greek Wedding,\u201d<\/p>\n
Scenic designer Yael Pardess also helps via a lean set that features blown-up covers of sheet music, a plush curtain implying wealth, and two chairs that enable Felder to get closer to the audience at either end of the stage.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s aided, too, by projections that capture images of George\u2019s lyricist brother, Ira, and best friend\/lover, Kay Swift.<\/p>\n
The night I saw the show, the Berkeley crowd was more gray-haired, wrinkled and frail than the usual Rep audience.<\/p>\n
Many, like a blissed-out woman across the aisle from me, were so familiar with the material they quietly sang or hummed along with Felder throughout.<\/p>\n
Audience reaction to Felder approaches ecstasy.<\/p>\n
I understand.<\/p>\n
Because he\u2019s that good.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeorge Gershwin Alone\u201d plays at Berkeley Rep\u2019s 400-seat Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley, through July 7. Night performances, 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Sundays. Matinees, 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets: $14.50 to $77, subject to change, (510) 647-2949 or www.berkeleyrep.org.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hershey Felder may be channeling George Gershwin. If that\u2019s not what\u2019s going on, he must at least be sensing the composer\u2019s fascinating rhythms through the fingertips of both hands….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"