Hershey Felder has made a career out of dramatizing the lives of famous composers. He dresses like them, plays their greatest works live on piano, and he brings out the real-life human stories behind the music.
He never repeats himself. Felder has chosen an extraordinary range of composers to portray — from Ludwig Beethoven to Irving Berlin to Leonard Bernstein, and those are just the B’s. But he also changes the style and structure of the shows, depending on their dramatic needs.
“Each one is structured differently,” Felder says in a recent phone interview. “Each one should call upon something different, something that’s integral to the story it is telling.
“The only element that stays the same,” he says, laughing, “is the placement of the piano. I tried to change that too, but it just didn’t work any other way. It’s a big piece of furniture that has to stay in the center of the stage.”
In his newest work, “Our Great Tchaikovsky,” coming to Hartford Stage for 11 performances Aug. 19 through 27, Felder plays two roles. One is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the 19th century Russian composer best known for his “The Nutcracker” and “Swan Lake” ballets. The other: “I play myself as a narrator. That’s something I’d never done before.”
He took that step so he could present the story from a contemporary perspective.
“I’m contextualizing a life that happened 100 years ago,” he says. “I knew it had to relate to today.” In particular, Felder wanted to express the irony he felt when he was invited to Russia to “do what it is I do” and perform a show about Tchaikovsky. This was shortly after the country imposed a ban on what it called “gay propaganda,” and St. Petersburg outlawed public displays of affection between homosexuals.
Tchaikovsky was homosexual.
“That’s not an inference,” says Felder, who does extensive research into the composers he plays. “What’s problematic is that Tchaikovsky himself didn’t want to be found out.”
He says “Our Great Tchaikovsky” is just as relevant in the United States as it is in Russia, referencing last month’s tweet by President Trump announcing that “the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military.”
Felder feels that “what Tchaikovsky went through is something a lot of people go through today.” But, he says, “when I first planned this, I had no idea everyone would have Russia on their lips this year.”
Felder describes “Our Great Tchaikovsky” as “not overtly political, but borne out of political situations.” Musically, he says, it’s a “mixture of [recorded] orchestra and solo piano. You can’t do a Tchaikovsky piece without doing the ‘1812 Overture.'” A section of the composer’s “Romeo and Juliet” also is performed, and its themes underscore some of the dramatic storyline.
“I also put in some piano pieces that are not well known,” Felder says.
Felder’s biographical dramas-with-music have “become an industry” for him. “When I’m done with [Hartford], I’m heading to London for Bernstein and Berlin back to back. The moment I announce a new show, it’s already booked in five places.”
But Felder has announced that he’s nearly finished with creating his singular musical bio-dramas. He’s planning just one more — on Debussy, because he feels he’s been remiss in not having a French-born composer in his repertoire.
“Then I will stop creating shows,” he says. “I will still perform the old ones — I don’t think they’ll let me stop doing that.”
Felder is eager to work on an assortment of other projects he’s got lined up, including a musical, an opera and a one-man show, “Flying Solo,” that he created for the renowned operatic baritone Nathan Gunn.
Hartford Stage — where Felder appeared as Gershwin in 2004 and Chopin in 2006, and where his production of “The Pianist of Willesden Lane” was performed by Mona Golabek in 2014 — was a late addition to the “Our Great Tchaikovsky” tour. The Hartford performances of “Our Great Tchaikovsky” will be the show’s East Coast premiere.
The theater had initially requested his Irving Berlin show, “but I said I’m having too much fun with this one.”
OUR GREAT TCHAIKOVSKY written and performed by Hershey Felder, directed by Trevor Hay, plays Aug. 19 through 27 at Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford. Performances are Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.; Wednesday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 2 p.m. $25 to $90. 860-527-5151, hartfordstage.org.
