PORTLAND – “I Love a Piano” is a nostalgic and patriotic musical journey spanning seven decades of American history as seen through the eyes of legendary songwriter and composer Irving Berlin.

PCA Great Performances will bring this heartwarming musical revue to Merrill Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 2.

“I Love a Piano” tracks the life of a beloved piano with one sour key through four generations of singers and dancers who have performed with and around it. Six actors and an on-stage band combine to celebrate Berlin’s career from the ragtime era through the sophisticated swing of the 1930s to the inspirational music of World War I and II, and the unfettered optimism and pride of the 1950s.

The revue features more than 60 of Berlin’s compositions, including such timeless classics as “White Christmas,” “God Bless America,” “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”

The Boston Globe hails the show for offering “a full spectrum of brilliant Berlin” and the Los Angeles Times calls this salute to America’s greatest tunesmith “as invigorating a song-catalog revue as any since (Fats Waller’s) Ain’t Misbehavin’.”

Tickets for this national touring production are $53, $46, and $38 and are available through PortTix, the box office at Merrill Auditorium; by calling 842-0800; and at www.pcagreatperformances.org.

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