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Jeremy Piven has to give the performance of a lifetime in his latest feature, aptly titled “The Performance.” Like, he really has to.
Piven tap dances through the WWII drama, adapted from the short story of the same name by Arthur Miller. “The Performance” centers on a dance troupe that is asked to travel from New York City to Berlin in 1937 to perform for the Nazis. However, Piven’s character Harold May is Jewish, and amid the rise of Hitler in Germany, his ability to pass as a gentile could be a matter of life and death.
The official synopsis for “The Performance” reads: “A wealthy German patron of the arts, Mr. Fugler (Robert Carlyle), offers an irresistible sum of money to a struggling American dance troupe touring Europe for a one-night engagement in Berlin in 1937. The troupe’s leader, a Jewish-American, discovers the show is for Hitler himself. Now, he must face his enemy with the best performance of his life.”
Maimie McCoy, Adam Garcia, Isaac Gryn, and Lara Wolf co-star.
“The Performance” is directed by Shira Piven (“Fully Loaded,” “Welcome to Me”), who co-wrote the script with Josh Salzberg.
“Shira shared the story with me, and it captivated me from the pitch,” Salzberg said in a statement shared with IndieWire “We talked about turning it into a kind of folktale, like, did you hear the one about the Jewish guy who went and tap danced for Hitler? It’s a larger-than-life concept, it’s not some stodgy period piece.”
The cast performs their own dance routines onscreen, as well.
“I didn’t for a moment think, ‘Well, I don’t tap dance – I can’t play this role,’” Jeremy Piven previously told Deadline. “I’ve been trying to get the money to produce it ever since, and it took me 15 years to make this film. And each year that we couldn’t find the money, I got better at tap until I was ready to perform it, so divine timing.”
He even broke eight ribs doing one stunt in the film.
“I told my stuntman — who looked just like me if I was younger and better looking and stronger — to stand down, and then I did the stunt myself,” he explained. “And I only know one way to do it, which is to throw myself in completely. And I broke eight ribs while I was doing this stunt. And yeah, and it’s in the film. We got one take, and we did it. We did it.”
Piven later posted on social media that the film took “15 long years” to make and that it is a “miracle” it’s being released. “They say that I disappear into this role,” Piven said, “but I actually reappeared.”
“The Performance” has an awards-qualifying run in Chicago as of December 13, and premieres February 28 in theaters from GVN Releasing. Check out the trailer below.
English (US) ·