To the editor:
Hershey Felder, the amazingly accomplished Steinway Concert artist, is also a prolific playwright, actor, singer, composer, producer, educator, and humorist. His “Beethoven: A Play with Music,” which is part of Berkshire Theatre Group’s summer season, is an astonishingly engaging portrait of the brilliant but tortured Ludwig von Beethoven. On view only this past weekend at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, it was a perfect bookend to the BTG production of their terrific “Million Dollar Quartet” earlier this summer.
The restored Colonial, a gem of a theater, replete with baroque red and gilt decor, evokes Vienna, where the Bonn-born Beethoven lived, composed, and died at 57. The one-man play with music—in which Felder, directed by Joel Zwick, ably takes on the roles of several men and a young child, using a bit of German and German-accented English—is full of fascinating facts about the irascible Beethoven, his family and close friends, as well as his deafness. In short, this is a play about a genius by a genius.
Hersehey Felder gives it his all. And if that isn’t enough to land him thunderous cheers and applause from the captivated audience, he generously engages in a post-performance Q&A, then ends with his beautiful rendition of Beethoven’s most popular composition, “Fur Elise.” Elise, he reveals, may have actually been Therese. No one really knows for sure. Beethoven, the man, and the cause of his deafness and eccentricities remains a mystery. One thing is certain: Those fortunate enough to see and hear Felder’s performance come away wonderfully entertained and informed. Bravo Beethoven, Felder, and the Berkshire Theatre Group!
Barbara Wind
Stockbridge and Charleston, N.C.
