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Chicago Tribune
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Review: In Hershey Felder's 'Rachmaninoff and the Tsar,' the composer is in conversation with his past
Sometimes, a melody is worth 1,000 words — or, in the case of a theater review, about 800. To really get a feel for the tone of 'Rachmaninoff and the Tsar,' the latest addition to Hershey Felder's series of biographical plays about famous composers, I'd suggest listening to the slow middle movement ('Adagio sostenuto') of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto. Quietly elegiac and lushly romantic, this beloved piece captures the play's contemplative pace and the sense of grief and yearning that runs throughout. No wonder Felder makes it a centerpiece of his new show, which weaves together one man's loss of his family with another's loss of his home and musical voice. As part of its world premiere season, 'Rachmaninoff and the Tsar' is now in its Midwest premiere at Writers Theatre. A regular presence on Chicago stages, the Montreal-born Felder is best known for his portrayals of composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven, Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Frédéric Chopin, George Gershwin and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Doing triple duty as writer, actor and pianist, Felder usually has only two scene partners — a Steinway piano and an audience — as he intersperses vignettes of his subject's personal history with live performances of that composer's music. Now, for the first time, another cast member joins him onstage, with British Italian actor Jonathan Silvestri playing the role of Tsar Nicholas II. As Felder explained during a post-show Q&A session on opening night, he feels the story simply doesn't work without the character of Nicholas II, the last reigning emperor of Russia and patriarch of the Romanov royals who were infamously executed by Bolsheviks in 1918. Felder's Rachmaninoff — dying of melanoma in his adopted home of Beverly Hills, California, in 1943 — conjures up the long-dead tsar with the help of his prescribed morphine in order to rehash their shared past. (Yes, the show is essentially one extended drug trip.) Directed by Trevor Hay, the play has two main throughlines, which are clearly related but don't always mesh well. Rachmaninoff feels deeply homesick for pre-revolutionary Russia, and he recounts the long compositional dry spell that he experienced after fleeing his home in 1918. This theme can be summed up in a quote often attributed to Rachmaninoff: 'I left behind my desire to compose: losing my country, I lost myself also.' In the play, the composer blames the tsar for unleashing the violent revolution and thus causing his own devastating displacement. A different kind of grief haunts Nicholas as he recalls his close relationship with his youngest daughter, Anastasia, and mourns the deaths of his wife and children. (The speculative nature of the script comes into play here; in reality, the family members were killed together.) The Romanovs appear in black-and-white video flashbacks, designed by Stefano DeCarli and featuring Silvestri's actual wife and daughter. The royal family's backstory and the popular myth of Anastasia's possible survival later play an intriguing role in Rachmaninoff's life in America, an actual chapter of the composer's history that I hadn't heard about until seeing this play. Felder's Rachmaninoff struggles to reconcile his anger at the tsar with his nostalgia for the old Russia, which involves an enduring loyalty to the Romanovs. The rapid shifts of tone in his conversations with Nicholas can be disorienting, veering from sharp political criticism to sentimental memories of visiting the Winter Palace. Of course, humans are more than capable of holding conflicting feelings at once, but it seems like Felder, as writer and actor, hasn't quite worked out how to navigate these two extremes. Felder the musician, however, gives crowd-pleasing performances of Rachmaninoff's greatest hits, including the Prelude in C-sharp minor, a piece that he composed at age 19 and grew to hate because of its undying popularity. (With a droll sneer, he confesses that he simply refers to the piece as 'it.') Felder takes a heavy-handed, percussive approach to the composer's signature leaping chords, thus losing some nuance in the voicing, but he brings an expressive touch to the more delicate, bell-like passages. And certainly, it's no small feat to underscore his own dialogue, as well as Silvestri's, with live piano music. Of the two men portrayed in this play, Rachmaninoff certainly comes across as the more sympathetic. Though born into an aristocratic family, he has imbibed ideas of meritocracy from his adopted country; he believes nobility comes from what's in the soul, rather than an accident of birth. Nicholas, on the other hand, is an imperial relic who repeatedly proclaims his divine right to power, making him a difficult character to relate to. Still, I suspect that any parents in the audience will be moved by Silvestri's speeches about fatherly love and grief, while emigrees — and anyone who feels disconnected from their home — will be touched by Rachmaninoff's emotional 'Rachmaninoff and the Tsar ' (3 stars) When: Through September 21 Where: Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes Tickets: $35-$95 at
Chicago Tribune
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Writers Theatre's 2025-26 season includes the local premiere of ‘Leopoldstadt'
Writers Theatre in Glencoe will produce the long-awaited Chicago premiere of the highly acclaimed 2020 Tom Stoppard drama 'Leopoldstadt' as part of the its 2025-26 season, artistic director Braden Abraham said Monday. The expansive, Tony Award-winning drama, set in wartime Austria, explores how all four of Stoppard's Jewish grandparents were murdered by Nazis in concentration camps. It will be directed by the frequent Stoppard collaborator Carey Perloff. A coup for Writers Theatre, the ensemble-driven play likely will feature an all-Chicago cast. 'Carey found a way to do the play with slightly fewer actors,' Abraham said. 'That made it possible for us.' Perloff previously directed the new version of the play, crafted with Stoppard's help, at the Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C. The next Writers Theatre season begins in the summer with Hershey Felder's 'Rachmaninoff and the Tsar ' (Aug.13 to Sept. 21), a dramatic, concert-style entertainment with music by Rachmaninoff from the longtime Chicago favorite and piano virtuoso. The Chicago premiere of Shaina Taub and Laurie Woolery's new musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's 'As You Like It ' (Oct. 30 to Dec. 14) follows in the fall under Abraham's direction, with musical direction by Michael Mahler. Next winter, Writers will stage Nilo Cruz's 'Two Sisters and a Piano' (Feb. 26 to March 29, 2026) directed by Lisa Portes, followed by the Chicago premiere of the contemporary thriller 'Job' (April 9 to June 14, 2026) directed in Glencoe by David Esbjornson. Max Wolf Friedlich's tense, taut drama played on Broadway last year. 'Leopoldstadt' (June 4 to July 19, 2026) will conclude the season, with extensions to the run likely. As a subscription add-on in December, Writers Theatre will bring back the Australian magician Harry Milas to Chicago. Milas' intimate show, 'The Unfair Advantage' (Dec. 3-28), was well-received last year at Steppenwolf's Garage Theatre. More information on the season at 847-242-6000 and Also worth noting: In other theater news, it was announced Monday that a new James Taylor jukebox musical 'Fire & Rain' is in development. Both book and direction are by former Chicagoans: Steppenwolf Theatre ensemble member Tracy Letts has written the book and direction will be by David Cromer, who is currently represented on Broadway by 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' starring George Clooney and opening in New York on April 3.
