GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE
**3/4
(c)2001 David Lefkowitz. reviewed May 2001 on Broadway.
Hershey Felder makes but two mistakes in his solo tribute to George Gershwin: 1) he tends to crash-bang the piano keys a little too hard and a little too often; 2) he sings. Now as the show’s narration (and, one assumes, history) tells us, GG was no warbler, but when Felder bellows, the results are painful to the point of embarrassment. That’s a shame, because the show is otherwise a touching, amusing bio, with some fast if sloppy work on the keyboard.
The “Rhapsody in Blue” finale rouses, and Felder wisely takes that sublime middle section ever-so-delicately, making the effect, indeed, rhapsodic.
*
Staged by Joel Zwick, George Gershwin Alone ran April 30-July 22, 2001 at Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theater.
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