Pasadena Playhouse Two-fer Featuring Hershey Felder

Hershey Felder is a phenomenal talent! Playwright, actor, musician, composer — wow, who’s has time for all that?
At the Pasadena Playhouse, this phenom puts on these one-​man shows in succession, each playing for about 2 weeks each, with just a few days in-​between. That’s a lot of dialogue, production, and rehearsals to cram in a very short amount of time. Amazing.
February 28-​April 7 (
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Monsieur Chopin
Maestro: The Art of Leonard Bernstein
Lincoln: An American Story
I had the privilege to see both Chopin & Lincoln, 2 of the 3 shows, and feel a loss for missing Bernstein! Mr. Felder is the truest of talents.
CHOPIN — Weaving in the audience as students to a piano class with Chopin, we are taught about the life story of the great composer/​pianist in a cleverly-​written way. The highlight for me was the amazing playing of Mr. Felder, who has got to be one of the most amazing players I’ve ever seen or heard. Also, near the end of the play, he took Questions from the audience, and answered in character. It was a lot of fun.

LINCOLN — No beard, no hat, instead — this is written in the perspective of young army surgeon, Charles Leale, who happened to be in attendance at the Ford Theater, April 14, 1865. Doctor Leale was called into the immediate aide of the President after the shooting. With a 45-​piece symphony, the score was beautiful, the dialogue riveting, and was both patriotic and emotional. It was the first performance of the Première showing of this new play — very well done and truly fantastic.
Stephanie C and Katie B — thank you both so much for the tickets. I had an absolutely wonderful time.

I didn’t get to do the Two-​fer but Maestro alone was enough for me to rate this 5 Unilocal stars.
Thanks Unilocal LA for hooking us up with great seats. I feel like the seats gods are always on my side. Always get either front row seats or center seats.
Anyways… I was really impressed by Hershey Felder. I came in with no expectation of what was going on. Did anyone say FREE tickets? I’m in! But I will say this, it was worth the drive to Pasadena and not just because they were having a good happy hour event that week. I digress. What impressed me the most was the switching between acting, singing, and playing the piano. How many actors will qualify for a role like this?

Great show at a nice old school venue. Hershey Felder is very captivating with his one man musical shows.

I always feel so cultured when I come here. It’s so close to my work.
I’ve been here for several plays — some courtesy of Unilocal (thank you). The theater is small so any seat is good for the plays.
The building is really nice. It’s close to Elements Café and close to a lot of restaurants. It’s very old fashioned — like in Santa Fe.
This place is also good for a photo op if you need engagement photos done (if you’re theater buffs).
The sets for each show look amazing. They can do A LOT for the small space they have. Well done.
PARKING:
Street or paid parking lots.

Since this was a Two-​fer, it deserves a second review. Thank you again to Katie B and Stephanie C for allowing us to get our culture on and for being so kind and waiting out front to give everyone their tickets. The seats keep getting better and better :) and I really appreciate it. I brought my younger sister to this show and we were in row H. If you know me, you know I love my Jews and I love my gays! :) So how could I not enjoy MAESTRO: THE ART OF LEONARD BERNSTEIN? As other Unilocalers mentioned, I did notice the flip flopping of accents and being a tad off at times. I still followed along fine and certainly learned a lot more about Bernstein. However, what was not great were the people seated in back of us that sounded as though they were in need of an oxygen tank or had a severe case of pneumonia. I felt it was extremely rude and ill mannered to attend a play being this sick. Huffing and puffing — panting and carrying on as if they needed a ventilator was quite the distraction. It was SO beyond rude that it made it hard to enjoy the production with all of that in addition to the coughing and sneezing and wtf, did they bring a bag of Lays potato chips or what??? They were munching down and rattling some sort of bag the entire time! It was just horrid and extremely unpleasant. I really wanted to say something or give up the decent seats to move further back to avoid being contaminated by their germs and obnoxious behavior but I didn’t. Again, this playhouse is very cute and the seats are nice, regardless of what row you are seated in.

I’ve always enjoyed the Pasadena Playhouse. It’s right around the corner from a really nice little bookstore, so I get to swing in there really quickly to browse around a bit and there is a variety of restaurants that was within walking distance.
My +1 and I arrived early for the Wednesday Chopin show so we could get a bite to eat before the show. Stephanie really hooked it up with some front row tickets so a huge thank you to Unilocal.
I’m a Chopin fan, I even have some of his jams on my iPod because you know sometimes you just want to dance in a fancy way. I really enjoyed the way Hersey Felder portrayed him and I really liked how he stayed in character during the Q&A. He promised he would make us laugh and he did not disappoint. My buddy that joined me had never been to a play of any kind so he wasn’t sure quite what to expect. I don’t think he knew who Chopin was but with all that going against his possible enjoyment of the evening he said he really really enjoyed it. I offered to burn him some Chopin to put on his iPod but he declined.
Sounds like someone doesn’t like fancy dancing.
Ps. How could anyone not give this 5stars? It was free. You’re entitled to your own opinion but I’m still calling you out you jerkfaces.

Dug this hard core.
First of all, the Pasadena Playhouse is absolutely gorgeous. I couldn’t stop looking at the architecture. Beautiful, beautiful setting.
The performance was a one man show (Hersey Felder being the man) about to the life of Leonard Bernstein. I was all kinds of all about it, being a musical Broadway history nerd. Felder was fantastic in both his acting and musical ability. The design of the show was great, too, with beautiful images filing the backdrop throughout the 90 minutes. I was entranced the entire time with everything.
If you’re NOT a musical Broadway history nerd, it might not be quite as enjoyable, but definitely more tolerable than you would expect. Boyfriend isn’t the biggest fan of this type of entertainment, but I was pleasantly surprised when I learned that he didn’t fall asleep :)
Thanks Katie & Stephanie & Unilocal for the free tickets! Loved!

The playhouse is beautiful. Tucked into a lovely quiet street with a spanish style front patio, this theater has echoes of the quaint city that surrounds it. It’s an intimate theater, with seating for maybe 150 – 200 and no bad view. It carried the sound of the piano in the show very well and the voices of the actors carry without knowing they put effort into it. Sometimes you can expect to be the youngest person in there at 38 years old, but it’s got class and you can’t deny that.
The show, Maestro: The Arts of Leonard Bernstein, wasn’t the greatest acting I have ever seen. His accents fell off often and got crossed. His singing was strong but not quite effortless. HIs piano was fantastic and I see why he chooses his material to write plays.
I appreciate seeing this theater for the first time, so thank you to Unilocal for this great event offer!!!

I’ve always loved the Pasadena Playhouse! It’s just such a gorgeous place to be at. I thought I was in for a night of piano playing, but, It was more then that.
Hershey Felder is an exquisite pianist and a wonderful vocal talent, and it’s amazing to me that he is also a flawless playwright and an engaging actor. His work is unique and unparalleled.
On Wednesday night was CHOPIN–
I have a special fondness for Chopin, but even if you aren’t a classical music fan, you will be enthralled by the history lesson made into theater and you’ll never again listen to classical piano without remembering Hershey’s work.
He played some very difficult pieces with out any sheet music!
He remained in character, even during the entertaining Q&A portion at the end.
His technique of making famous composer come alive on stage with his superb piano playing and acting is mesmerizing and Phenomenal. Felder has a magical way of making Chopin come to life.
Sunday night was Maestro the Arts of Leonard Bernstein–
Here is were I’m stuck. The music and the show was good! The storyline of Bernstein was a bit dull. (SORRY) It wasn’t as enticing as Chopin. Although we got to witness his talents of crossing between his accents, that was about it.
Felder is not just a story teller, he is a teacher of musical history just as Bernstein was a teacher of classical music. But the play write should be a bit more intense in my most humble opinion.
Highly recommended the Chopin show if you are into an arts and music like me. These tickets are about $ 40-​$ 50 each! Thank you so much Katie B and Unilocal that saved me almost $ 200 for my guest and I! Thank you sweet Stephanie for waiting for us Unilocalers so she can give us our tickets! It made my Week… made it too exciting that I came on Saturday night instead of Sunday night! haha!

I’m a fan of Hershey Felder having seen him in Gershwin. It was interesting learning about Leonard Bernstein since I didn’t really know much about him.
Mr. Felder is very talented and keeps you entertained with his dialogue and fabulous musical skills. The sing a long sounds like a future fun night on the town!

I came for a Unilocal Elite event on ³⁄₁₁ for the Maestro the Arts of Leonard Bernstein show. The place has a Spanish mission feel to it and is very beautiful. Pasadena, itself, is very beautiful. I love how the ushers are all senior citizens, so cute and nice ^_​^. The show itself… well to start off, it was very interesting. I had not expected it to be a monologue but the performance was beautiful and enticing. The piano playing was well-​practiced and passionate.
I am so glad that the tickets were free because I do not think it was worth…$ 40. I would come back to the Pasadena Playhouse for another show.

Hershey Felder is a genius – his intimate showcase (accompanied by impressive vocal and piano performances) of Leonard Bernstein’s personal and professional life is astounding. As he discusses key moments in Bernstein’s life, he unearths why the enormously talented, wealthy, and famous musician remained emotionally discontent.
Joel Zwick (the director of «My Big Fat Greek Wedding») also directs – he artfully weaves additional music and audio, as well as projections of key people in Bernstein’s life, within Felder’s performance.
Great show in a beautiful, quaint theater.
I wish I could have caught Felder doing Gershwin last year!

Lucky for me, I got a chance to go to both shows! :)
The first time I saw Hershey Felder in action was for George Gershwin Alone and he was awesome! That was such a great show!
These 2-​fer shows were pretty awesome too!
I got to watch Chopin on Wednesday night and it was great.
I brought my mom with me tonight & we loved it!
Thank you Katie B., Stephanie C. & Unilocal for the awesome tickets & perfect nights out!

You can’t beat the price… free!
Thanks a bunch for getting this event together for us Unilocalers. It was truly a great evening filled with great music playing, acting, and improv. Hershey Feider has gotten my attention, and I’m looking forward to seeing him play Lincoln.
Chopin has always been on of my favorite composers, and It’s great to actually get a perspective on his life story.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this performance because I thought it was going to be a play but then I read a bit about it and I figured it was going to be more of a classical piano concert but truthfully it was a bit of everything… which was pleasantly surprising. It was very entertaining for a one man show, the actor did a fantastic job at revealing Monsieur Chopin’s life story. The pieces he played were beautiful… I loved that he threw in some comedic aspects.
I love music and I use to take piano lessons as a kid so this was a great event for me. Thank you Katie B. for the complimentary tickets.

As a classically trained violinist, I personally have always been a huge fan of classical music. Coming into it, I knew Monsieur Chopin would be part biography and part concert but it was so much more than that.
The actor, Hershey Felder, is phenomenal! He’s an actor, singer, pianist and everything all at once. I was amazed by the amount of talent he had. Not only was he a captivating actor but also astounding pianist. The music pulls at the heart strings and with the background of Chopin’s life you can really feel the emotion that goes into the composition of these pieces.
I came in expecting to just listen to the beautiful music and then have to sit through the hoity-​toity bits of acting before some more music. Instead I was left captivated by all of it; the sights, the sounds, the emotion, the whole lot of it. I even got to hear my favorite Chopin piece, Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2. I even got some Piano Concerto No. 1 even if he was making fun of it. It was great and I’d really like to thank Katie B. and Stephanie C. for allowing me to experience this amazing performance. I was initially planning to skip on the Sunday portion of the double feature but after last night’s show and finding out that Hershey Felder is also the actor for MAESTRO: The Art of Leonard Bernstein, I think I might reconsider =)

Hershey Felder was amazing as Frederyck Chopin. The amount improvisation he does at the end was really fun and jaw-​dropping. These very hard piano songs he had to play while talking! I have to concentrate a hundred percent to even play a simple scale and arpeggio.
It was definitely an interesting play that mixes the music of Chopin with the life of Chopin. He is masterful on the piano and so extremely talented with his acting. It was definitely heartfelt to hear him speak of Chopin’s life. This man definitely knows his music history.
The Playhouse is gorgeous as always. An intimate theater that is the perfect space for this type of performance.

When I first saw this event, I wasn’t exactly sure of what to expect. Was it a piano concert or a play? It turned out to be more than either of the two. It was a one-​man performance where the actor played the piano, sang, revealed the story of Chopin’s life, and even did some comedic improvisation.
I was amazed by how well the actor played the piano and how much he knew about Chopin and other famous composers. The performance was funny, sad, and beautiful at the same time. It definitely got me in the mood to start playing the piano again.
Shout out to my friend Mikey L. for getting our tickets early – we sat front row center! I was almost afraid of getting spit on or picked on by the actor hehe.
Thanks to Katie B. and Stephanie C. for getting us complimentary tickets! This was a spectacular performance.

Yay! What a cool performance. Part biography, part one man play, part recital, and part open Q&A.
Thanks to Stephanie C., aka the Unilocal Intern, for hooking us up with front row seats! Ada, Lily, and I were able to get 6 seats together. I could see saliva fly from the actor’s mouth when he was acting! Better than a HD 3D movies!
Good to see Todd K and his womens. He’s pimp.
The actor also heckled me for my casual attire! Haha. Yay!
I also loved having the $ 15 3 course meal at Tender Greens. What a smart marketing campaign to tie in a restaurant and a performance. Cheap dates for the win!

I didn’t know what to expect, only thinking there will be some sort of classical music involved. I’m a music lover of all kind, but I can’t say I’m an expert for classical music.
The show is literally a one man show! The actor, Hersey Felder, sings, acts, and plays. Piano maniac! In the beginning, I thought he wasn’t playing because no man could be that talented! I was soo wrong!
The show displayed Chopin’s life, background, and love through his music. The performance display how Chopin interprets each song and how it came about. It really displayed the genius that he was… no wonder he was the ‘rock star’ of his age. The show took me on a slow ride of emotions making me confused, sad, nostalgic, bitter, happy, and curious. I’ve learned a lot about Chopin and his music when the curtain fell. I went into this show not knowing what to expect and came out with a crush on Chopin’s melody and harmony. I’m officially a lover of his work!
PS, Tickets are available on Goldstar for a discounted price, $ 21 – 38.