Chicago has truly been Hershey Felder's kind of town.
The Canadian pianist/actor/playwright has found Windy City audiences to be truly receptive to his music-infused one-man shows through the years like George Gershwin Alone, Monsieur Chopin and Beethoven, As I Knew Him.
"Chicago is the greatest city in the country," Felder said during a recent telephone interview. "I'm not just saying that to flatter. I said it, I know it. I feel like it's my artistic home in America."
Indeed, Felder has found Chicago-area acclaim at venues ranging from the Ravinia Festival to the former Drury Lane Theatre Water Tower Place (now the Broadway Playhouse). But it was the Royal George Theatre that provided Felder with his longest-running Chicago success: an amazing 70-week run of his Broadway show George Gershwin Alone that started in September of 2004.
Now Felder hopes that Chicago audiences will be just as willing to clamor for his latest classical composer endeavor at the Royal George Theatre: Maestro: The Art of Leonard Bernstein.
"It's a powerful story and it's more contemporary than the others I've done," Felder said, happy that with Bernstein, he doesn't have to top load his text with as many historical facts about a centuries-old composer's time and place.
"It's more fun from an acting standpoint," Felder said. "I really get to dig in both character-wise and I get to dig in as writer and musically because this is what he didhe dug into the music and I can dig into his life through the music."
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) led a famously charmed life as one of America's most talented and esteemed musicians. Bernstein seemingly could do it all: compose classical compositions and Broadway shows like West Side Story and Candide, conduct world-famous orchestras like the New York Philharmonic and become a media celebrity through his pioneering educational Young People's Concerts on CBS-TV in the 1950s.
But Bernstein also had a very troubled personal life, ranging from a difficult childhood to lifelong issues with his conflicted sexuality. In 1976 Bernstein notoriously left his wife, Chilean actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre, to live with the writer Tom Cothran. When his wife was diagnosed with lung cancer the following year, Bernstein returned and was wracked with guilt when she died 1978.
"We can deal with things like him having been a sexually confused man in 1950s and '60s America," Felder said. "This is an issue that we can still relate to and it's very much part of our present."
In writing Maestro, Felder structured the piece to depict Bernstein near the end of his life, selectively reflecting on his past glories and his self-perceived failings.
"We don't talk about everything," Felder said. "It deals with the themes of his life rather than a chronological approach of 'And then I wrote…' or 'And then I conducted…'"
Felder also plans to focus on Bernstein's drive to make his later compositions more "serious" because he didn't want to be remembered primarily just as a Broadway composer.
"I think he wanted to be taken more deeply," Felder said. "I think Beethoven wrote deep stuff and took the weight of the world on his shoulders, but he also appeals to the everyman and I think Bernstein wanted to fit into that category."
In creating Maestro, Felder of course had to work with the Bernsteins' estate. But compared with the Gershwin estate, Felder was happy to be given more of a freer rein in creating Maestro. Felder credits this to the fact that he was just starting out writing his one-man shows with George Gershwin Alone, and has since proven himself time and time again with other composers he has played on stage.
"I treat these things very seriously," Felder said about his historical approach to creating his shows. "I'm very proud about this one because I do believe that the people who tell me that they knew [Bernstein] very well, they tell me that it does reveal how he was and who he was."
Hershey Felder's Maestro: The Art of Leonard Bernstein begins previews on Nov. 1 at the Royal George Theatre, 1641 N. Halsted. The official press opening is Nov. 9, and the regular run is scheduled through Dec. 30. Tickets are $55. Call 312-988-9000 or visit theroyalgeorgetheatre.com .
Tomorrow's plays, today
Those theater fans who love being on the cutting edge of new work had better not miss Steppenwolf Theatre's 7th annual First Look Repertory of New Work running Wed., Oct. 26, through Sunday, Nov. 20, at the company Garage space.
Three new plays in repertory are on the docket: Christina Anderson's Depression Era look at segregation in Man in Love, Zayd Dohrn's look at tough love group therapy in Want and Carly Mensch's examination of progressive parenting gone awry in Oblivion.
There are also free one-time only readings of three in-development plays. About Face Theatre fans of their recent productions of The Kid Thing and The Homosexuals will be excited to note that the playwrights of those two pieces, Sarah Gubbins and Philip Dawkins, are represented.
Gubbins' forthcoming Steppenwolf for Young Audiences drama "fml: or how Carson McCullers saved my life" is read at 3 p.m. Nov. 3, while Dawkins' Miss Marx; Or the Involuntary Side Effect of Living is read at 3 p.m. Nov. 4. Rounding out the readings at 11 p.m. Nov. 5 is Marisa Wegrzyn's Mud Blue Sky.
Steppenwolf Theatre's First Look Repertory of New Work runs from Oct. 26 to Nov. 20 at the Steppenwolf Garage, 1624 N. Halsted. Tickets are $20 for fully staged shows, while the readings are free (RSVP required). Call 312-335-1650 or visit www.steppenwolf.org .