Last night, thanks to the generosity of an acquaintance, we attended a special performance of "George Gershwin Alone." This one-man play provided the opportunity to spend an evening with Gershwin, embodied by actor/pianist Hershey Felder, as he explained his life and his work. It was a fascinating, engaging performance. The play is a mixture of biography, music theory master class and concert performance. Mr. Felder's vocal talents do not keep pace with his work at the keyboard, but that is hardly a criticism of his singing, as his musicianship on the piano is dazzling. The play closed with a stirring solo piano rendition of "Rhapsody in Blue" which brought the audience leaping to its feet at the end.
The occasion for this fine perfomance was a benefit for the local ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) support and advocacy association. One of my car buddies is the president and CEO of the organization, and he offered free tickets to those of us car folks that wanted to go. A few of us took him up on his offer, and got the chance to rub shoulders with the famous (Michael Crichton, Brad Garrett) and nearly-famous. (Actually, rubbing shoulders with Crichton and Garrett requires a stepstool -- both of those guys are seriously tall.) We were offered a chance to walk down the red carpet, which came complete with TV cameras and other photographers, but we were content to slip in the side entrance to the Geffen Playhouse. As we nibbled on hors d'oeurves and perused the silent auction items (which, in addition to the usual spa-treatments-in-Malibu and cooking-lessons-with-Wolfgang-Puck items included a flag from last year's Open Championship signed by Tiger Woods), the vibe of the entire event was happy and relaxed. The event doubled as a birthday party for one of the organization's key people, an ALS sufferer but, by all accounts, also a tireless lobbyist. The evening concluded with a sing-along of Gershwin tunes led by Mr. Felder and a rendition of Happy Birthday sung by the entire house to the guest of honor.
All told, it was a very special evening of great music and storytelling, and a rare opportunity for us 'burb dwellers to get a peek at the life of rich and famous Westsiders. If you want to see a little bit of what it was like, watch Entertainment Tonight this week (their feature will probably air tonight, but I'm not certain of that).
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