Hershey Felder Will Perform a One-Night-Only Benefit For TheatreWorks

Internationally-acclaimed actor, pianist, and filmmaker Hershey Felder has responded to TheatreWorks fundraising needs with an extraordinary offer: Felder will fly in for the day on October 11 and take the stage for one evening only with his Great American Songbook Sing-Along: A One-Night-Only Benefit for TheatreWorks.

The Tony Award recipient company announced a financial crisis that is putting its continuation at risk and in a magnanimous gesture, Felder offered his services completely free, staging a special musical event in which he will share stories and lead the audience through 100 years of American music, featuring a selection of songs by beloved composers including Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and many more, even featuring songs made famous by Elvis. Hershey Felder’s Great American Songbook Sing-Along: A One-Night-Only Benefit for TheatreWorks will be presented 7:30pm Wednesday, October 11, 2023 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. Tickets ($45 to $1,000) will be offered during a priority on sale for Season 53 Subscribers and current donors at the Inner Circle level and above starting September 12, with remaining tickets available to the public September 19. For more information the public may visit TheatreWorks.org/hershey or call (877)-662-8978.

All ticket holders will have the chance to join Felder in singing along to music from the Great American Songbook, but the event also offers exclusive opportunities to meet the celebrated artist. At the $500 level, guests will receive top seats for the show, and be invited to join Felder for a private post-show reception with champagne and dessert, toasting an incredible performance and the future of the leading Silicon Valley regional theatre. At the $1,000 level, guests will be invited to an exclusive pre-concert event with Felder, savoring hors d'oeuvres paired with exquisite wines from J. Lohr Vineyards, plus premium seats offering left-side (keyboard) view of Felder’s virtuosic playing, as well as the post-show reception. For Hershey Felder’s Great American Songbook Sing-Along: A One-Night-Only Benefit for TheatreWorks Starring Hershey Felder, Felder is donating his performance fee and travel allotment fee to the company and 100% of proceeds from this event will go to support TheatreWorks’ future.

In early August, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley launched its critical fundraising campaign Save TheatreWorks Now with a goal of raising $3 million by November 2023 in order to complete its 53rd season. Within three weeks, the company announced that it is already more than halfway to its goal with $1.7 million raised. To ensure the goal is met, Felder has generously offered to perform this concert in support of TheatreWorks, where he has dazzled audiences in record-breaking engagements of his wildly-popular shows including Hershey Felder: Chopin in Paris, the regional premieres of Our Great Tchaikovsky and Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, and the World Premieres of Hershey Felder as Claude Debussy in A PARIS LOVE STORY and Hershey Felder: Beethoven. Just as in demand have been Felder’s Great American Songbook Sing-Alongs, occasionally staged during his runs at TheatreWorks, all of which sold out immediately.

“When I heard about TheatreWorks’ financial situation, I had to help,” said Felder, who is currently traveling between film and stage engagements in Europe and across the U.S. “TheatreWorks is vital to the Bay Area community as well as being a theatre where works are developed for a national audience. Theatre might be going through a difficult period, but it is not for nothing that it has survived and thrived for several thousand years. We are simply obligated to usher it through this difficult period to the other side so that great work and communal storytelling continues as it is necessary for our well-being and our humanity.”

“We are so grateful to Hershey for stepping up to save TheatreWorks, and for his longtime partnership with our company,” said Artistic Director Giovanna Sardelli. “Hershey has long been a great favorite among our audiences, and we know everyone will enjoy joining with him in song and community for this one-night engagement.”

Hershey Felder: American Theatre magazine has said, “Hershey Felder is in a category all his own.” Following 28 years of continuous stage work and over six thousand live performances throughout the U.S. and abroad, Hershey Felder created Live from Florence, an arts broadcasting company, which has produced more than a dozen theatrical films to date. They include the world premiere musicals Nicholas, Anna & Sergei, the story of Sergei Rachmaninoff; Puccini, the story of famed opera composer Giacomo Puccini; Before Fiddler, a musical story about writer Sholem Aleichem; and others, all benefiting theatres and arts organizations across the U.S.. Programming is currently available at www.hersheyfelder.net. Felder has given performances of his self-created solo productions at some of the world’s most prestigious theatres and has consistently broken box office records. His shows include George Gershwin Alone (Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre, West End’s Duchess Theatre); Monsieur Chopin; Beethoven; Maestro (Leonard Bernstein); Franz Liszt in Musik, Lincoln: An American Story; Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin; Our Great Tchaikovsky; and A Paris Love Story. 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. Felder is the adaptor, director, and designer for the internationally performed play-with-music The Pianist of Willesden Lane with Steinway artist Mona Golabek; producer and designer for the musical Louis and Keely: ‘Live’ at the Sahara, directed by Taylor Hackford; and writer and director for Flying Solo, featuring opera legend Nathan Gunn. Felder 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.

Felder has become an enormous favorite among South Bay Area audiences through his appearances at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, where his stage productions have smashed box office records.

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