Susan Granger’s review of “Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin” (59E59 Theaters – Off-Broadway)
After dazzling audiences at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, Chicago’s Royal George Theatre, the Majestic Theatre in Boston, and Allen Theatre at the Cleveland Playhouse, Hershey Felder brings his unabashedly sentimental, one-man show to Manhattan.
According to Felder, before Irving Berlin died at the age of 101 in 1989, he had become a cantankerous old codger, railing at carolers in front of his Beekman Place townhouse, singing “White Christmas.”
“They don’t deserve it,” he barks.
Little Israel Isadore Beilin was born in Belarus in 1888. He arrived in the United States at the age of five and grew up on New York’s Lower East Side. He published his first song, “Marie from Sunny Italy” in 1907, receiving 33 cents its publication. That was just the beginning.
During his 60-year career, he wrote an estimated 1,500 songs, many becoming major hits, including “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “Easter Parade” and “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm,” plus the scores for 20 original Broadway shows and 15 Hollywood movies. He was Oscar-nominated eight times.
But Irving Berlin’s life had its ups and downs. He fell in love with socialite Ellin Mackay, whom he married and for whom he wrote the ballad “Always” (1925). When their first daughter was born, he wrote “Blue Skies” (1926).
In 1938 to commemorate the end of W.W. I on Armistice Day, Kate Smith introduced “God Bless America,” a fervently patriotic song he wrote in 1918. Berlin’s daughter, Mary Ellin Barrett, maintains that song was ‘very personal’ for her father, expressing his gratitude to his adoptive country. Over the decades, it’s earned millions for the Boy Scouts & Girl Scouts to whom Berlin donated all royalties.
Berlin’s long career as composer/lyricist concluded with an ill-fated show entitled “Mr. President,” which opened the same week that John F. Kennedy was shot.
With book and scenic design by Felder – who duly credits historian Meghan Maiya – the performance is directed as a 1-hour-45 min. biographical songbook by Trevor Hay – without an intermission. Kudos to Brian McMullen’s projections, Richard Norwood’s lighting and Eric Carstensen’s sound design.
My problem with Hershey Felder’s cynical portrayal of Irving Berlin is that it doesn’t resemble the elderly gentleman I met a few times and whose daughters I knew. Adding insult to injury, his caricatured imitation of Ethel Merman warbling “There’s No Business Like Show Business” goes beyond insulting.
According to the press notes, Mr. Felder does similar portrayals of Leonard Bernstein, Beethoven, Chopin, George Gershwin, Liszt and Tchaikovsky. None of which I have seen.
“Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin” plays through Oct. 28 at 59E59, between Park and Madison Avenues.