An American Story for Actor and Orchestra

In his newest solo piece, Hershey Felder portrays Dr. Charles Leale, the Union Army surgeon who was at Ford’s Theatre the night Lincoln was shot. Felder’s primary source is Leale’s own account, written within days of Lincoln’s death and rediscovered in the National Archives last year. He enlivens his telling by interpolating songs of the day, including several Stephen Foster tunes, as well as a few compositions of Felder’s own, all performed by an 11-piece onstage orchestra. Felder’s an engaging stage presence, but his script tries too hard to establish Leale as a 19th-century Forrest Gump, even if the details are true to life.