There has been a change in the schedule for Hershey Felder’s season-long series of productions slated for the Royal George Theatre, 1641 N. Halsted.
Debra Eberhardt’s exuberant one-woman show, “Jamaica Farewell,” will continue through Oct. 11 as planned. But then, instead of “I Found My Horn,” the story of a British man’s midlife crisis and his return to his love of the French horn, which was set to open Oct. 30, Felder himself will arrive with a strictly limited five-week, pre-New York engagement of his own one-man show, “Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin,” running Oct. 30 – Dec. 6. “I Found My Horn” will move to March, 2016.
A special holiday engagement of “Baritones Unbound” will still open Dec. 11 and run through Jan. 3, with a cast including Broadway’st Marc Kudisch and international opera greats Mark Delavan (“The Voice of God”) and Nathan Gunn (amusingly referred to as the Barihunk or the Hunkitone).
Why the change?
“We were advised by our immigration attorney that, because of a computer shut-down some months ago at the U.S. Embassy in Britain, there has been a backlog,” explained Felder. “Our files are in order, but it ‘could’ take longer than the dates we had outlined, and I didn’t want to leave a gaping hole in the lineup.”
Felder’s Irving Berlin show, which broke box office records in its world premiere at Los Angeles’ Geffen Playhouse, brings to life the remarkable story of Irving Berlin, about whom composer Jerome Kern famously said, “He has no place in American music—he is American music.”
Born amid the anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia, and then an immigrant on New York’s Lower East Side, Berlin ultimately became the quintessential American composer who penned an amazing songbook that included “God Bless America,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Blue Skies,” “White Christmas,” “Easter Parade,” “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” “Always,” “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep,” “Heat Wave,” “How Deep is the Ocean,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” “Steppin’ Out with My Baby,” “What’ll I Do,” and the scores of “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Holiday Inn” and “Easter Parade.”
Actor-pianist-writer Felder will spin his story and, as he did with George Gershwin and many others, he will showcase his signature style of character creation and musical performance.
All tickets, now on sale, are $60. Call (312) 988-9000 or visit http://www.ticketmaster.com.
