George Gershwin Alone Web site Hershey
Felder played the title character in the one-man show
"George Gershwin Alone" on Broadway.
By Mary Williams
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Over 30 Broadway and television actors will perform at the
Wadsworth Theatre tonight, and for once the tickets are free and
the audience is invited to participate by singing along.
Of course, like many free-of-charge events lately, donations
from the show, called “A Sing-In for America,” are
being accepted for the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, and
the show is expected to benefit the audience as well.
“We’re alive, we’re well, and life must go on.
It’s fun, it’s about unity, it’s about getting
out of the house,” said Hershey Felder, who came up with the
idea for a sing-along fund-raiser.
“It’s about being in the theater and seeing that it
can be safe. It’s about creating a feeling that this kind of
thing does happen in the world and it’s unbelievably tragic,
but for those of us left behind we must go on and we must fight
terrorism, not just with guns and government ““ we need to
fight terrorism by not letting it beat us,” he continued.
Felder decided to organize the event after a successful
experiment during his run in the one-man show “George
Gershwin Alone” last season on Broadway.
Noticing that the audience often seemed to want to sing along
with the Gershwin songs, he encouraged the audience to stay after
the show and sing while he played piano.
“People don’t want to just see a performance, they
want to take part. And it’s important to see performances
that are incredible and masterful, but it’s also important to
encourage people to sing,” Felder said.
When the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked, he
decided to turn this idea into a fund-raiser for the victim’s
families. It quickly grew from a small concert to a massive show
that includes four actors who starred in Broadway productions last
season ““ Felder, James Barbour (“Beauty and the
Beast,” “Jane Eyre”), Linda Purl (“Tom
Sawyer”) and John Ritter (“The Dinner Party”),
who is acting as one of the event’s MCs.
“Everyone was completely eager and right away said,
“˜Yes.’ No one had a hesitation,” said Kay Cole,
one of the organizers who works as a Broadway director and
choreographer and who has also starred in “A Chorus
Line.”
Barbour, another of the organizers, said that his work in the
fund-raiser was his natural reaction to crisis.
“After about a 24-hour period, I said, “˜Okay, now
what do we do? We got to keep going.’ And that’s how I
am as a human being. I cannot sit idle, and for me to let emotions
like that take over what’s going on in my body is
unacceptable, because for me that handcuffs us as a human
spirit,” Barbour said.
In addition to coordinating the performers, the event’s
organizers had to arrange for a theater, equipment and food to be
donated to the show. By working with friends and associates, they
were able to put together the entire production without any
expenditures.
“Richard Willis (the co-operator of the Wadsworth Theatre)
and I have produced before, so we have a lot of friends,”
Felder said. “When you’ve produced theater, and thank
goodness in my case it’s been successful, you can call upon
friends to help you. Not to mention the fact that anybody we called
was just thrilled to donate.”
Although the purpose of the event is to raise funds for victims
of terrorism, the mood of the performances should be upbeat and
hopeful, according to Cole.
“I’m hoping that it will be celebratory for the
amazing heroes that are doing astonishing work in New York, but
always that will be laced with a bit of sadness,” said
Cole.
“I think like anything there will be a few tears, and a
few laughs, and much cheering and joy at being able to
contribute,” she added.
With many of these actors living and working in New York, the
events of Sept. 11 had a highly personal impact that encouraged
them to contribute to this fund-raiser.
“I’m a New Yorker and I had such sadness at the
tragedy, and also a bit of guilt, not being there and not being
able to run down to ground zero and help and volunteer, and in my
small way this is the way I can contribute,” said Cole.
Barbour was encouraged to help out by the reaction of New
Yorkers to the tragedies.
“I’ve lost five people to the tragedy now, and of
course I’ll be thinking about them during various parts of
the show,” said Barbour. “One of the guys was a
firefighter … I’ll also be thinking about what he was doing
and why he was doing what he was doing. And to me that’s a
sense of hope. Here’s a guy that ran into a crumbling
building to save lives.”
By allowing both performers and the audience to express their
sense of hope, contribute and have fun by singing along to
showtunes, the organizers hope that the show has a unifying and
uplifting quality.
“Everyone has a voice, and some are not beautiful and some
are beautiful, but the important thing is that you get even 100
people in a room, or 200, or 500 ““ here there will be 1,400
people in a room singing together,” said Felder. “And
that’s remarkable.”