[NEohioPAL] Hershey Felder as George Gershwin Alone Comes to Cleveland Play House

[Alison Bibb]

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.
____________________________________________________________________________
________________________

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 <http://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

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