TORONTO — Mandy Patinkin met Patti LuPone 30 years ago, when the two were cast in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Evita on Broadway, for which they both won Tony Awards. [Brigitte LaCombe photo]
The veteran stars of film, television, concert and stage are back together again in the critically acclaimed An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theatre for six performances Feb. 9 to 14.
“About five years ago, there was a new arts centre outside Dallas, Texas, that was opening,” Patinkin says. “They called Patti’s people and said they had me, and they called my people and said they had Patti. They didn’t have either one of us. It was one of those evenings that we would each do 30 minutes and then sing Getting to Know You and leave. I hate those evenings, so I was ready to blow it off.
“But, before I did that, I asked my piano player, Paul Ford, who has been my collaborator for 20 years, if he thought we could put together a show that would certainly be a concert and a high entertainment evening, but would also have a story and a structure.
“He said yes. I asked Patti if she was interested and she said, ‘Go ahead, doll.’ So I set about it with Paul, we gave birth to it, and we’ve been playing with it and tweaking it ever since. We’re having just the time of our lives,” Patinkin says.
When it came to the choreography, they called upon their good friend, Ann Reinking, a fellow Broadway veteran, who won a best choreography Tony Award for the revival of Chicago.
“Aside from the goal of the piece of being a good old-fashioned entertaining evening, I also say it is a figurative journey of two souls using familiar and unfamiliar material, both spoken and sung,” Patinkin says.
“Each scene flows out of the next. There are many things we do together and several things we do on our own, but we are usually there supporting one another. Although, there are a couple moments that we are on are own.”
Patinkin says the show will include a mini-version of South Pacific, sections from Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along and the entire bench scene from Carousel, which Patinkin says is “one of the most glorious pieces of writing that has ever been created.”
Not to forget their shared Broadway roots, they will bring Evita into the mix when LuPone sings the crowd favourite Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.
The two Broadway veterans have already taken this theatrical concert worldwide and plan to continue to do so for years to come, changing it as they go along.
“Patti and I are dear, old friends from that Evita experience, about 30 years ago. I look in her face and I feel like I’m 25 years old. When I’m with Patti, I’m back in time,” Patinkin says.
“We want audiences coming out with a happy smile on their faces and to walk away from the world’s troubles for one night in February. We have a great time doing it, and I believe you’ll have a good time, too. That’s our job to give you a good time.”
Keeping busy, Patinkin is also performing in a new play called Compulsion, at the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Conn. Having had the concerts at the Royal Alex booked before agreeing to do the play, the production of Compulsion will shut while Patinkin is in Toronto and start up on his return.
When not on stage, Patinkin enjoys hanging out, hiking and biking with friends and family. He is married to Kathryn Grody, an actress and writer, best known for her one-woman play, The Mom’s Life. She is working on a new play called Falling Apart Together. The couple has two grown children, Isaac, 27, and Gideon, 23.
For tickets, online: www.mirvish.com, call 416-872-1212 or visit the box office at 260 King St.W.
