A Costume Drama Without the Drama

Bostonist attended a performance of Monsieur Chopin the other night at the A.R.T. in Harvard Square.

It's a curious show - somewhere between a monologue, a piano recital, and a multimedia slide show. Unfortunately, we arrived expecting a play. Monsieur Chopin is a one-man show retelling the life and loves of Frédéric Chopin, but a ponderous (dare we say soporific?) chunk of the evening is spent on piano performances. Hershey Felder portrays Chopin with a great deal of love, and we have it on good authority that his piano skills are remarkable - but the show is dense and characterless, more like a history lesson than a drama.

We're not ashamed to admit that the show lost our attention somewhere between the in-character monologues and the piano pieces. What did grab our attention however was the stage design. The set was beautiful: a sparely decorated sitting room with a grand piano, parquet floor and a gigantic mirror. Throughout the evening, multimedia projections covered the stage, caught on huge diaphanous curtains that gave a ghostly dimensionality to the images.

Felder won us back at the end, however. After what seemed like the end of the show, he stepped out of character and his humor and love for his material became immediately apparent. He performed a brief piece where he imitated Chopin mocking Gershwin (another hero of Felder's), and closed the evening with a sing-along ("I'm Forever Chasing Rainbows") - we felt that it was a pity that the balance of the evening was so stiff and slow when Felder had this joyful energy in him all along.

Monsier Chopin runs through July 30 at the A.R.T.'s Loeb Drama Center on Brattle Street in Cambridge. Tickets are $45 for all seats, with $15 "student rush" seats available for those with valid student id. The show is best-suited to classical music afficianados.