Press Release: Rachmaninoff and the Tsar

HFP LIVE presents The World Premiere Season of Hershey Felder & Jonathan Silvestri in RACHMANINOFF AND THE TSAR A New Musical Play At South Coast Repertory

With Hershey Felder as Sergei Rachmaninoff And Jonathan Silvestri as Tsar Nicholas II

Music of Sergei V. Rachmaninoff Book by Hershey Felder Dramaturgy by Jerry Patch Directed by Trevor Hay

FOR PHOTOS: https://www.scr.org/about/press-room/photos-24-25-season/press-photos-rachmaninoff-and-the-tsar/

COSTA MESA, Calif. (Feb. 4, 2025)—South Coast Repertory (Artistic Director David Ivers and Managing Director Suzanne Appel) and HFP LIVE present pianist/actor/playwright/producer Hershey Felder, for a strictly limited engagement of Rachmaninoff and the Tsar, a new musical play, at South Coast Repertory, Feb. 19-March 2 on the Segerstrom Stage. Known throughout the world for his solo composer plays, for the first time, Felder appears opposite another actor, British-Italian Jonathan Silvestri, in the role of Tsar Nicholas II.

Having safely left Russia during the 1917 revolution, legendary pianist-composer Sergei Rachmaninoff made his home in the United States. In 1942, at the age of 68, he applied for American citizenship and bought a home in Beverly Hills, but his soul never left Russia. Six months thereafter, a terminal illness brought forth the memory of an encounter with Russia’s last Tsar, Nicholas II, and the Tsar’s daughter, the Grand Duchess Anastasia. This memory would haunt him until the end. Featuring Rachmaninoff’s most beautiful music including the Second Piano Concerto, the Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, Preludes, Symphonic Selections and more, Rachmaninoff and the Tsar had its world premiere this past summer at the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica, followed by the Balboa Theatre in San Diego, where the San Diego Union Tribune said that “Felder gives a heartbreaking performance in his masterful drama about Rachmaninoff in what is his best work.”

Along with Rachmaninoff and the Tsar, SCR is presenting a special, one-night only performance of the Hershey Felder’s Great American Songbook Sing-Along on the Segerstrom Stage on Monday, March 3 at 7:30 p.m. On this interactive experience, Felder invites audiences to sing along as he takes them through 100 years of some of the most iconic American music, incorporating works by Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and George and Ira Gershwin, among others. Felder not only plays songs familiar to all ages, but tells stories about each one.

Tickets and more information are available now at scr.org.

“It’s a thrill to have Hershey back at SCR entertaining Orange County audiences,” Ivers said. “It’s particularly exciting to be presenting his brand-new work with our audiences as he shares the stage and the spotlight in this entertaining and timely narrative, shaped in part with SCR’s own resident dramaturg, Jerry Patch. Oh, and he’s added a special Hershey Sing-Along that is not to be missed.”

Since the 1998 premiere of his internationally lauded play with music George Gershwin Alone, Hershey Felder has appeared on world renowned stages throughout the United States and abroad, giving more than 6,000 performances on stages in original works that include George Gershwin Alone, Beethoven, Maestro Bernstein, Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, as well at the appearances of Our Great Tchaikovsky, A Paris Love Story—Debussy, and more. Film world premieres at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills include several of his award-winning films: Musical Tales in the Venetian Jewish Ghetto, The Assembly, Noble Genius Chopin & Liszt, and more. In all, Hershey Felder has performed on more than 100 stages in leading worldwide theatres.

This exploration of Rachmaninoff’s itinerant but extraordinary life illuminates the master’s sense of home and family and how those elements influenced his art. It features his world-famous C# minor Prelude to his Second Piano Concerto, his symphonies and his Paganini Variations. Rachmaninoff did leave Russia but Russia stayed with him until the very end, influencing every aspect of his life. This world premiere promises to be another mystical musical journey in the Hershey Felder style that audiences have come to know and love.

“Hershey is unparalleled at combining great classical piano and theatrical performance. Our Orange County audience is in for a real treat as we explore this story of Rachmaninoff’s escape from Russia and choice to live in exile in California,” Appel said. “Hershey reminds us that making a home in California allows all of us to experience the richness of the many artists who have made our state their home, and that the theatre provides a unique kind of refuge and gathering place for the exchange of cultures.”

Rachmaninoff and the Tsar features the music of Sergei V. Rachmaninoff with a book by Hershey Felder. The production is directed by Trevor Hay. Dramaturgy by Jerry Patch, South Coast Repertory’s Resident Dramaturg.  Concept design is by Hershey Felder. Lighting is by Erik S. Barry, sound and production management is by Erik Carstensen, Projections are by Stefano Decarli, Costumes are by Marysol M. Gabriel and wigs are by Judi Lewin.

Sergei Rachmaninoff was born in 1873 in the Russian village of Semyonovo, more than one thousand miles to the east of Moscow. Beginning piano lessons at four, when he was ten he entered the St. Petersburg conservatory later moving to the Moscow Conservatory. He was known as a first-rate pianist, a world class conductor and heir to Tchaikovsky as composer. He spent most of his life performing as a pianist in Europe and the US. While he was world renowned as a pianist and conductor and beloved for his compositions, he was not critically well received by cognoscenti until the second half of the 20^th century. He died just days before his 70^th birthday in Beverly Hills, only weeks after finally receiving his American citizenship.

Hershey Felder (Sergei Rachmaninoff/Book) Recently named as Artistic Director of the historic Teatro della Signoria in Florence Italy, as well as Teatro Nicollini, both in Florence’s historic city centre, American Theatre Magazine has said, “Hershey Felder, actor, Steinway Concert Artist and theatrical creator is in a category all his own.” Following 28 years of continuous stage productions and over 6,000 live performances throughout the U.S. and abroad, Hershey Felder created Live from Florence, An Arts Broadcasting Company, based in Florence, Italy, which has produced more than 18 theatrical films to date. They include the recently-released Noble Genius—Chopin & Liszt; The Assembly; Violetta, the story of Verdi’s Traviata; Dante and Beatrice; Mozart and Figaro in Vienna; the world premiere musicals Nicholas, Anna & Sergei; the story of Sergei Rachmaninoff; Puccini, the story of famed opera composer Giacomo Puccini; Before Fiddler, a musical story about writer Sholem Aleichem; Great American Songs and the Stories Behind Them, Leonard Bernstein and the Israel Philharmonic, a documentary, and the popular Musical Tales in the Venetian Jewish Ghetto.  Three seasons of programming are currently available at www.hersheyfelder.net  with season 4 being launched in fall of 2025. Hershey has given performances of his solo productions at some of the world’s most prestigious theatres and has consistently broken box office records. His shows include George Gershwin Alone (Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre, West End’s Duchess Theatre); Monsieur Chopin; Beethoven; Maestro (Leonard Bernstein); Franz Liszt in Musik, Lincoln: An American Story, Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin, Our Great Tchaikovsky, and A Paris Love Story and Monsieur Chopin. His compositions and recordings include Aliyah, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Fairytale, a musical; Les Anges de Paris, Suite for Violin and Piano; Song Settings; Saltimbanques for Piano and Orchestra; Etudes Thematiques for Piano; and An American Story for Actor and Orchestra, and the opera IL QUARTO UOMO that premiered in Fiesole, Italy in the summer of 2023 with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Hershey is the adaptor, director, and designer for the internationally performed play-with-music The Pianist of Willesden Lane with Steinway artist Mona Golabek; producer and designer for the musical Louis and Keely: ‘Live’ at the Sahara, directed by Taylor Hackford; and writer and director for Flying Solo, featuring opera legend Nathan Gunn. Hershey has operated a full-service production company since 2001. He has been a scholar-in-residence at Harvard University’s Department of Music and is married to Rt. Hn. Kim Campbell.

Jonathan Silvestri (Tsar Nicholas II) began his career at BAC Youth Theatre in London’s Clapham district later studying with Simon Furness. He is known for his roles in the international television HBO hit series “Borgia” as Cardinal Fonsalida; his recent film with Tim Rozon as a US Marine in Dakota, the television series “The Young Pope,” “Dangerous Lies,” “Devils,” “Fangs,” and more. He is a regular on Italian TV, in particular RAI’s “Impazienti” in a starring role with Max Tortora and Enrico Bertolino. Silvestri recently appeared as Eugene Delacroix in Felder’s feature film Noble Genius-Chopin & Liszt and the feature film Hey Joe, with James Franco. A regular on Roman stages, Silvestri’s notable theatre credits include Closer by Patrick Marber, Julius Caesar, Our Country’s Good, and Chinatown at the Teatro Manhattan as well as many other productions. Silvestri is of British-Roman origin and is an actor specializing in international character accents and styles.