Photo Flash: TheatreWorks Silicon Valley Presents HERSHEY FELDER: A PARIS LOVE STORY

TheatreWorks Silicon Valley continues its 2018/19 season with the World Premiere of Hershey Felder: A Paris Love Story, written and performed by piano virtuoso Hershey Felder, who shattered box office records at TheatreWorks with his acclaimed portrayals of Irving Berlin, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky. Now, Felder captures the life and music of Impressionist composer Claude Debussy, a visionary who proclaimed nature his religion, creating music of ravishing beauty, color, and compassion, from the sweeping "La mer" to the evocative "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune" and the mystical "Clair de lune." Intertwined with Debussy's story, Felder for the first time shares his own deeply personal connection to the City of Light. Directed by Trevor Hay, Hershey Felder: A Paris Love Story will be presented April 3 - May 5, 2019 (press opening: April 6, 2019) at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro Street, Mountain View. For tickets ($40-$120) and more information the public may visit TheatreWorks.org or call (650) 463-1960.

TheatreWorks will also present a special one-night-only musical event: Hershey Felder's Great American Songbook Sing-Along 7:30pm April 22, 2019 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, inviting audiences to belt out their favorites accompanied by Felder's signature piano stylings. From his very first performance of Gershwin Alone, it became clear to Felder that once the audience heard familiar notes from beloved classics, they wanted to join in, and thus his sing-alongs were born. The last sing-along at TheatreWorks by the adored solo performer, which accompanied his acclaimed run of Our Great Tchaikovsky, quickly sold out. Hershey Felder will take audiences through 100 years of American music from the Gershwins, Jerome Kern, Berlin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, through Bernstein, Sondheim and many more. For tickets ($50-$100) and more information the public may visit TheatreWorks.org or call (650) 463-1960.

Hershey Felder is an actor, pianist, writer, director, composer, conductor, and producer who has conjured the spirits of George Gershwin, Frederic Chopin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Leonard Bernstein, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Irving Berlin. Felder's solo shows have been seen across America - at The Geffen Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, San Diego Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe Theatre, American Repertory Theater, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Cleveland Playhouse, as well as long runs at Chicago's Royal George Theatre and engagements at New York's Town Hall, 59E59, and the Streicker Center. Throughout the past 20 years, he has given more than 5,000 performances. Described by American Theatre Magazine as "a seductive portraitist, compelling storyteller, and superb concert pianist," Felder's work was named one of TIME Magazine's 2016 Top Plays and Musicals. Felder has become an enormous Bay Area favorite; audiences packed TheatreWorks' regional premieres of Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin; Hershey Felder, Beethoven; and Our Great Tchaikovsky. The newest work marks Felder's fourth appearance with the Silicon Valley-based regional theatre.

Director Trevor Hay helmed the world premieres of An American Story for Actor and Orchestra, Abe Lincoln's Piano, Hershey Felder as Franz Liszt in Musik, Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, and Hershey Felder as Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Our Great Tchaikovsky and was Associate Director for Mona Golabek's The Pianist of Willesden Lane. Hay is also a former member of the historic Old Globe Theatre in San Diego where, at the age of nine, his first position was selling Old Globe memorabilia. In a career now spanning 32 years, Mr. Hay went on to various aspects of production on more than 80 presentations, including the Broadway productions of Jack O'Brien's Damn Yankees, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and Twyla Tharpe's The Times They Are A-Changin'. Included in his 23 seasons at The Old Globe were eleven seasons of the Summer Shakespeare Festival Repertory, as well as work on Tracy Letts' August: Osage County, directed by Sam Gold, and Hershey Felder's George Gershwin Alone, Monsieur Chopin, and Maestro Bernstein.

With some 100,000 patrons per year, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has captured a national reputation for artistic innovation and integrity, often presenting Bay Area theatregoers with their first look at acclaimed musicals, comedies, and dramas, directed by award-winning local and guest directors, and performed by professional actors cast locally and from across the country.

Photo Credit: Christopher Ash