Oh, Mandy!

On entering Strathmore Hall for the Mandy Patinkin concert Saturday night, the only things one saw on stage were an upright piano and a worklight.  (There was also a bench, but I didn’t notice it.)  Ron said to me, “funny that they don’t have a grand piano here.”  Well of course they have a grand piano available, but this is a Mandy Patinkin concert so things are going to be done his way.  And thank heaven for that!

 Patinkin entered schlepping two large floral arrangements that he positioned on either side of the stage apron.  He was wearing the expected headset microphone, but instead of being attached to a discreet transmitter, it was hard wired with a cable attached to his belt.  So he spent his first 3 minutes onstage coiling and placing his cable, to great applause from a clearly adoring audience.  Then he started to sing.

 The opening Patinkin chose foreshadowed the fact that his concert was going to be a combination of musical bouquets and electricity.  He veered from a quiet meditation on fear eventually concludingwith a medley of songs in Yiddish, with Patinkin wrapping a glass in a linen napkin, breaking it underfoot and getting the entire audience at Strathmore to get up and do the Hokey Pokey (while he sang it in Yiddish).  And that was just the first ten minutes of the show!

 Highlights included a tribute to early Hollywood movies based around Jerry Herman’s Movies Were Movies, which included Patinkin miming his own silent movie, using that aforementioned bench.  He had a rousing version of Oklahoma, an intense Bring Him Home, and a gorgeously tender Pennies From Heaven.  And of course, there was an onslaught of Sondheim, most notably his sequence of Sorry/Grateful, Johanna, Green finch and Linnet Bird, Pretty Women, and Finishing the Hat. 

 It’s always a thrill to hear the original artist perform one of the “great works” from any cannon, and his terrific version of Finishing the Hat brought back memories of seeing a preview of Sunday in the Part With George more than twenty years ago. After the song Patinkin took a moment to praise the current Broadway revival, encouraging the audience to make a point to see it.  He also said it was the first time he ever saw the show, having only been in it.  (Although I have to say that his replacement Robert Westenberg was only OK, he missed seeing Maryann Plunkett find some very different, fascinating moments in the role of Dot.)

 Yes, Patinkin is a highly mannered performer.  There are 3 or 4 tricks he uses constantly – that growl, the tender then pushed falsetto, crouch, the lunatic breakdown with perfect diction.  Then there are the forced quirks – the upright, the sneakers, the headset and tail cord.  But the tricks are always used in total support of what he is trying to communicate as an artist, and he can be totally powerful standing still in a down-center spotlight and simply telling his story musically.  And what other performer today combines the power of Al Jolson (Rock-a-bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody), the exuberance of Danny  Kaye (Everybody Says Don’t / The King’s New Clothes), and grit of Harry Chapin (Taxi) ?

 To tell the story he has one of the most amazing partners in the brilliant Paul Ford, his music director of 20 years.  Ford makes the most amazing hairpin turns to suit Patinkin’s work.  And his timing is perfect to the nanosecond in support of what Patinkin is trying to achieve.  It occurred to me that it must be hard to do what Patinkin does with anything more than a piano – it must be easy for him to feel straight-jacketed by the needs of a larger ensemble for more regular predictable tempo and accents.  Best to keep the music lean, mean and perfect with Ford at the piano.

 Best of all, Patinkin demonstrates a veteran ability to perform with amazing intensity, yet still present the performance in a way that the audience can digest and understand.  Strathmore looked sold out with Patinkin fans who rewarded him with well-deserved ovations.  Now how do we get those people to see other worthy music events happening in local cabaret?