Jen Reviews Theatre: Hershey Felder As Irving Berlin Is Magnificent
“I did it all for you!” During Hershey Felder As Irving Berlin, this line made me cry because it was a sincere moment. It was an instance when you felt an artist was declaring their genuine love for us: the listener. Many want people to listen and watch them without caring about those people, and what messages they are giving them. Irving Berlin saw art as an expression for life, and those who want to love living it.
Hershey Felder deserves to be a one man show because no one can compete with his talent. For 90 minutes, he enraptures you. Usually, a human being will, singularly, listen to you talk, at most, for twenty minutes. Yet, Felder uses his body and voice to transform into what feels like the millions of people that crossed Irving’s path to make him become one of the greatest songwriters that ever lived. His story is so human and hopeful that Hershey Felder As Irving Berlin becomes the tender light of the 59E59 Theatres.
Irving Berlin did not have an easy life, but Hershey Felder, inadvertently, shows that no one does. Written and performed by Felder, and directed by Trevor Hay, the play with music has a very “Christmas Special” quality, which is befitting for the man that wrote “White Christmas.” There is an inviting glam to the set and Felder’s presence; as if he is transforming us into the most sophisticated but warm version of a family. With his piano in tow, Felder splashes through Berlin’s hits “God Bless America,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” and “There’s No Business Like Show Business” to show how they were inspired by moments of rejection, suffering, and the optimism that both are just tides in an ocean made of love.
Felder gives Berlin a balanced aura of seriousness and amiability. You feel that he is a loving, determined man with ambition running through his veins. Yet, he know to caps that ambition with a romanticism for love and family. His first marriage ends in absolute tragedy; with his wife getting typhoid fever on their Honeymoon. For the young man that grew up so poor he chose to leave his family and country, at a young age, so as not burden them with another “mouth to feed,” you are crushed. He came to America, as an immigrant, for opportunity and to make a family of his own, but ends up crumbling in the instant crash of his attempt. Yet, that is only one example of the tragedies that inspired Berlin’s music because, frankly, the man knew how to turn pain into positivity and both into creativity.
With his swoon worthy, second marriage with wife Ellin Mackay, the audience will petition Nicholas Sparks to create a novel on their story. Their forbidden romance is one for the hopeless romantic, and is one of my favorite tales amongst the many Felder will recite as Berlin. Again, how he transforms his body, voice, and complete aura to radiate the people that push Berlin unto his path as a lyricist is enamoring. He makes you laugh out loud with the outlandish characters, but also cry, as if you are Berlin, when you see them fade away. From the loss of his of second wife and only son to nostalgia for childhood/ friends’ memories, Irving Berlin’s, almost, 102 years on this earth is an example that the most successful lives are also the ones that suffer the greatest losses and failures.
Sufferings are unavoidable, but if you are like Irving Berlin, you understand that happiness comes in being grateful for overcoming them. While you will walk away from Hershey Felder As Irving Berlin convinced this is the most talented man you have ever seen, the greatest accomplishment of Felder is showing Berlin was a good person. The ease and joviality of this play comes with the fact they you are watching the life of a good man that well for himself and for others. You will be surprised how refreshing and necessary it is to hear such a story in these maddening times. Thus, Hershey Felder As Irving Berlin is a enlightening display that good people can win. For More Information On Hershey Felder As Irving Berlin Click Here To Buy Tickets. The play goes on till October 28 at 59E59 Theatres. Located of 59 East 59 Street.
