Hershey Felder Brings Leonard Bernstein Off-Broadway in MAESTRO, Beginning Next Week

A friendly reminder! 59E59 Theaters welcomes Hershey Felder as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro for a limited engagement Wednesday August 31 through Sunday, October 16 with Press Opening on Sunday, September 11 at 3 PM. MAESTRO, book by Hershey Felder with music by Leonard Bernstein and others, and directed by Joel Zwick is produced by The Town Hall with Samantha F. Voxakis and Karen Racanelli.

The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7 PM; Friday at 8 PM; Saturday at 2 PM & 8 PM; Sunday at 3 PM & 7 PM. (Please note: there are additional performances on Thursday, September 29 & October 13 at 2 PM. There are no performances on Saturday, September 24 or Tuesday, October 11. There is no 7 PM performance on Sunday, October 2.) MAESTRO is at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Single tickets range from $25-$70 ($25-$49 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or visit www.59e59.org.

Spanning the entire 20th Century, MAESTRO combines Leonard Bernstein's personal story and music with the music of classical composers and contemporaries that inspired him. Leonard Bernstein, arguably America's greatest musician, broke through every artistic ceiling possible to become the world's musical ambassador. Conductor, composer, pianist, author, teacher, librettist, television star...for Leonard Bernstein, boundaries simply did not exist.

Hershey Felder returns to 59E59 Theaters, after adapting and directing the critically acclaimed The Pianist of Willesden Lane, which was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. MAESTRO is the follow up to Felder's Maestro Bernstein, which played a one-night only engagement at Town Hall, where it was broadcast live a worldwide on the WFMT Radio Network.

Alexander Bernstein praised MAESTRO, saying, "This performance truly reveals the man, the story and the music of my father, Leonard Bernstein." Like Bernstein, Hershey Felder is a genre defying artist who has played over 4,500 of his self-created solo productions at some of the world's most prestigious theaters. His works featuring the lives and music of Gershwin, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Irving Berlin and of course, Leonard Bernstein, have broken box office records across the country in Chicago (Royal George Theatre), Boston (Paramount Theatre), the San Francisco Bay Area (Berkeley Repertory Theatre) and Southern California (Geffen Playhouse, The Old Globe Theatre).

Felder is currently performing MAESTRO in the newly opened Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills which gave birth to Deaf West's Broadway production of Spring Awakening. In an American Theatre feature documenting his decades-long career, critic Hedy Weiss wrote, "Hershey Felder is in a category all his own."

Hershey Felder (Leonard Bernstein/Creator): Felder has created and performed in George Gershwin Alone (Broadway's Helen Hayes Theatre, West End's Duchess Theatre); Monsieur Chopin; Beethoven as I Knew Him; Hershey Felder as Leonard Bernstein in MAESTRO; Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin; Franz Liszt in Musik and Lincoln: An American Story. He also performs concerts of his "Great American Song Book Singalong" in the acclaimed regional theaters that regularly host his work. Future productions include Tchaikovsky (January 2017 premiere at the San Diego Rep) and the new musical, Chosen By God for which he is writing music, book and lyrics. His compositions and recordings include Aliyah, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Fairytale, a musical; Les Anges de Paris, Suite for Violin and Piano; Song Settings; Saltimbanques for Piano and Orchestra; Etudes Thematiques for Piano; and An American Story for Actor and Orchestra. Hershey is the adaptor, director and designer for the very successful play with music, The Pianist of Willesden Lane and for the new musical Louis and Keely: Live at the Sahara, directed by Taylor Hackford, he is the producer and designer. Hershey has operated a full service Production Company since 2001. He has been a scholar-in-residence at Harvard University's Department of Music and is married to Kim Campbell, the first female Prime Minister of Canada.

Joel Zwick (Director): Directed My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the highest-­grossing romantic comedy of all time. Recent films include Fat Albert and Elvis Has Left the Building. Mr. Zwick directed the Broadway production of George Gershwin Alone at the Helen Hayes Theatre. He and Hershey Felder have also collaborated on Monsieur Chopin, Beethoven as I Knew Him and MAESTRO. Mr. Zwick began his theatrical career at La Mama E.T.C., as director of the La Mama Plexus. He has directed on Broadway, Off-­?Broadway and Broadway touring companies. Currently, Mr. Zwick is recognized as one of Hollywood's most prolific director of episodic television, having the direction of 600 episodes to his credit. These include having directed nineteen pilots which have gone on to become regular series. Previous New York productions have included Dance With Me (Tony nomination), Shenandoah (Broadway national tour), Oklahoma (national tour) and Cold Storage (American Place Theater). He acted in the original New York production of MacBird and directed Esther (Promenade Theater, NY), Merry­?Go­?Round (Chicago and Las Vegas), Last Chance Saloon and Woyzeck (West End, London). Mr. Zwick has taught drama at Yale University, Brooklyn College, Queens College, Wheaton College, and the University of Southern California and is a graduate (B.A., M.A.) of Brooklyn College. He is currently directing for the Disney Channel and has been at the helm of "Suite Life on Deck," "Dog With a Blog," "Jessie," "Shake it Up," "Girl Meets World" and "I Didn't Do It."

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