Community Concert Hall presents music of Irving Berlin

by Herald Staff Report

Article Last Updated; Tuesday, November 10, 2009 1:30AM

Photo by Courtesy of Miracle or 2 Productions

The cast of “I Love a Piano” performs a number from the musical revue. The show will visit the Fort Lewis College Community Concert Hall on Wednesday night.

If you go

“I Love a Piano,” a musical tribute to Irving Berlin, 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Fort Lewis College Community Concert Hall. Tickets cost $25/$29/$35, available by phone at 247-7657, online at www.durangoconcerts.com or at the downtown box office at Seventh Street and Main Avenue.

The sounds of Tin Pan Alley will come to the Fort Lewis College Community Concert Hall on Wednesday night with "I Love a Piano," a nostalgic musical journey spanning seven decades of American history as seen through the eyes of Irving Berlin.

The cast of six, plus a live backup band, will perform more than 60 of Berlin's tunes with the piano taking the lead. The revue tracks a piano with one sour key through four generations of owners and vocalists who perform on and with it, beginning in the Tin Pan Alley era, circa 1911, when Berlin launched his career, and ending during a late-1950s summer stock casting session for Berlin's 1946 musical, "Annie Get Your Gun." Also included is a World War II segment showcasing Berlin's "God Bless America" and additional patriotic songs.

"I Love a Piano" was conceived and written by Ray Roderick and Michael Berkeley, who have incorporated Berlin's timeless classics such as "Puttin' On the Ritz," "There's No Business Like Show Business," "White Christmas," "You're Just in Love," "Alexander's Ragtime Band" and much more.