Record-Busting “George Gershwin Alone”

Returns to the A.R.T. Sept. 27

By Susie Davidson

Advocate Correspondent

CAMBRIDGE - Hershey Felder's three-time extended one-man play about the life of George Gershwin, George Gershwin Alone, will return to the American Repertory Theatre from Sept. 27 to Oct. 12.

Felder’s play broke all box office and attendance records for the 22-year history of the theatre (previously held by Marcel Marceau). A playwright, actor and musician, Felder studied the legendary songwriter for five years after meeting a Holocaust survivor who was able to save his life by whistling “A Rhapsody in Blue” to entertain the Nazis. As an envoy at the January 1995 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Felder participated in Steven Spielberg’s SHOAH project by interviewing the Mengele Twin survivors, as well as the "whistler".

The show is cast as a chronological flashback, centered at Gershwin’s last apartment at 132 E. 72nd Street. It has been the only commercial Gershwin portrayal to be allowed by Gershwin family members.

Felder, who is married to ex-Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, is all too happy to return to the A.R.T. stage. “Performing ‘George Gershwin Alone’ in Cambridge,” he said this week from Paris, “has been one of the greatest pleasures of my three-year-stint portraying the role. The A.R.T. became like an old family home very quickly: warm, welcoming, and fun. The audiences that began to come from as far away as Salem always surprised me in their desire to see this piece, and I really am thrilled that GGA has had the success that it has had at the ART.”

"Gershwin's 104th birthday is (was) on September 26 but we've been celebrating it with Hershey Felder for the past four months,” said A.R.T. Executive Director and Loeb Drama Center Director Robert Orchard. “It has been an honor to have the music and - through Hershey's fine performance - the spirit of George Gershwin playing to full houses for such an extended period. I'm thrilled to be able to bring it back for these final two weeks".

The show has made national rounds in varied media; it had a 14 month, three-city run which included a limited engagement on Broadway, and has appeared on NBC, CBS, CBC, BRAVO, and PBS.

Gershwin, born in 1898 to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents in New York, died in L.A. of a brain tumor at the premature age of 38. In addition to the immemorial musicals “Porgy and Bess” and “Ragtime,” his songs include “Someone to Watch Over Me,” “Embraceable You,” “But Not For Me,” “I Got Rhythm,” and many more timeless classics included in Felder’s show.

What's on the post-Gershwin horizon?

“There are a number of new projects,” he answered. “The most imminent is the opening of “Back from Broadway,” starring James Barbour (Beauty and the Beast, Carousel, Jane Eyre) and myself in a new show that has had successful runs in Los Angeles, Florida, and a special appearance on Broadway at Lincoln Centre's Vivian Beaumont Theatre.” He staged this show on the same night following the completion of Gershwin at the A.R.T. “We found that audiences really took to this tale of two young artists who have suffered the trials and tribulations and also reaped the rewards of life on Broadway.”

Together with Nick Paleologos (Private Lives at The Stuart Street Playhouse, Boston, The Goat on Broadway, and other roles), “Back from Broadway” will open Nov. 1 at the Stuart Street Playhouse for a limited run.

“This production,” said Felder, “even gives the audience a chance to get in on what it feels like to sing on a Broadway stage. Surprises abound!”

While in Paris, the ever-revved Felder is studying “Chopin, Sand and Delacroix, who are the subjects of my next play about music, art, literature, and above all, Romance.”

The A.R.T. is located at 64 Brattle St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. For ticket information, call 617-496-2000, or visit www.amrep.org.