[NEohioPAL] Hershey Felder Brings Rachmaninoff and the Tsar to Cleveland Play House

[Geoff Short]

CLEVELAND PLAY HOUSE PRESENTS
THE NEWEST PLAY IN HERSHEY FELDER’S COMPOSER SERIES

Rachmaninoff and the Tsar
The Music of Sergei V. Rachmaninoff
Book by Hershey Felder
Hershey Felder as Sergei Rachmaninoff
Jonathan Silvestri as Tsar Nicolas II
Directed by Trevor Hay

March 5-15
Allen Theatre, Playhouse Square

Tickets on sale at clevelandplayhouse.com
SPECIAL BOGO 50% OFF TICKETS for March 5-8 performances with promo code PIANO
CLEVELAND, OHIO — Pianist/actor/playwright/producer Hershey Felder returns to Cleveland Play House as Sergei Rachmaninoff in the Cleveland Premiere of Rachmaninoff and the Tsar, the newest work in his internationally-acclaimed series of composer plays. For the first time, Felder appears opposite another actor: British-Italian Jonathan Silvestri in the role of Tsar Nicholas II. Featuring Rachmaninoff’s most beloved compositions, Rachmaninoff and the Tsar promises to be another mystical musical journey in the Hershey Felder style. Audiences have flocked to Felder’s past record-breaking hit productions which brought to life composers including George Gershwin, Frédéric Chopin, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Irving Berlin, Claude Debussy, Ludwig van Beethoven, and more. Rachmaninoff and the Tsar will be presented at Cleveland Play House from March 5-15 in the Allen Theatre at Playhouse Square, with Opening Night on Friday, March 6, 2026. For tickets and more information the public may visit clevelandplayhouse.com or call 216-241-6000.

The play brings to life legendary pianist-composer Sergei Rachmaninoff who, having safely left Russia during the 1917 revolution, has made his home in the United States. In 1942, at the age of 68, he has applied for American citizenship and bought a home in Beverly Hills, but his soul has never left Russia. Facing a terminal illness brings forth the memory of an encounter with Russia’s last Tsar, Nicholas II, and the Tsar’s daughter, the Grand Duchess Anastasia, a memory that haunts Rachmaninoff until the end.

Rachmaninoff and the Tsar had its World Premiere at the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica followed by a hit run at the Balboa Theatre in Santa Monica. San Diego Union-Tribune called the performance “masterful, visually stunning” noting the show is “one of his best.” Houston Press commended Felder’s “charm, finesse, and astonishing piano prowess,” while Stage and Cinema lauded his “fantastic playing of some of the greatest compositions of all time.”

Since the 1998 premiere of his internationally-lauded play with music George Gershwin Alone, Hershey Felder has appeared on world renowned stages throughout the United States and abroad giving more than six thousand performances in original works that include George Gershwin Alone, Beethoven, Maestro Bernstein, Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, Our Great Tchaikovsky, Hershey Felder as Claude Debussy in A Paris Love Story, and more. World premieres at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills have included several of his award-winning films: Musical Tales in the Venetian Jewish Ghetto, The Assembly, Noble Genius Chopin & Liszt, and more. In all, Hershey Felder has performed on more than one hundred stages in leading worldwide theatres.

This exploration of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s itinerant but extraordinary life illuminates the master’s sense of home and family and how those elements influenced his art. Featuring his world famous C# minor Prelude, his second piano concerto, his symphonies, and his Paganini Variations, Rachmaninoff did leave Russia but Russia stayed with him until the very end, influencing every aspect of his life.

Rachmaninoff and the Tsar features direction by Trevor Hay, dramaturgy by Jerry Patch, concept design by Hershey Felder, lighting design by Erik S. Barry, sound design and production management by Erik Carstensen, sound operation by Jeremy Kalke, projections design by Stefano Decarli, costumes design by Marysol Gabriel and wig design by Judi Lewin.


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