AN EVENING WITH PATTI LUPONE AND MANDY PATINKIN featured in the Associated Press
Associated Press
By Mark Kennedy
How a lie reunited Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin
It was an audacious lie that really reunited Mandy Patinkin and Patti LuPone.
Nine years ago, a theater in Richardson, Texas, was christening a new performing arts complex and an overeager booker decided to play a little mind game to secure the perfect opening night act — the two Tony Award winners from “Evita.”
“They called my people and said, `We have Patti.’ And then they called Patti’s people and said, `We have Mandy,’” says Patinkin. “They didn’t have either one of us. And we were friends.”
The pitch was this: Each performer would take the stage and sing for about a half-hour and then perform something together and call it a day. That didn’t appeal to Patinkin — “I hate these kind of evenings,” he says — and he was about to blow it off until he started playing with it in his mind.
What about instead of one of those typical benefit evenings, Patinkin and LuPone teamed up to tell their journey using familiar and unfamiliar material that was both spoken and sung? What if they performed something that could change and grow as they did?
Patinkin, who turns 59 later this month, went down to consult with LuPone at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, where she was starring in “Noises Off” on Broadway. They laughed about the Texas offer — she was also going to blow it off — and he made his pitch.
“Go ahead, doll,” she told him after.
Almost a decade later the resulting show “An Evening With Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin” rolls into New York, making its Broadway debut at the Barrymore Theatre for 63 performances starting Nov. 21.
The duo sing plenty of songs from John Kander and Fred Ebb, Stephen Sondheim, Irving Berlin, and Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, pulling heavily from such shows as “South Pacific,”"Merrily We Roll Along” and “Carousel.” In between songs, Patinkin and LuPone tell stories.
“The connective tissue is our lives. We chose material — spoken and sung — that follows this journey. Some of it is just flash entertainment because that’s part of our lives, too,” he says during an interview in his handsome Manhattan apartment. “Other parts are other aspects of our lives that are musically and lyrically echoed.”
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AN EVENING WITH PATTI LUPONE AND MANDY PATINKIN will be at the Barrymore Theatre, 243 West 47th Street, for 63 performances only beginning Wednesday, November 16 at 8pm through Friday, January 13. Opening night is set for Monday, November 21.
Tickets for AN EVENING WITH PATTI LUPONE AND MANDY PATINKIN are available through Telecharge.com (212-239-6200) or in person at the Barrymore Theatre. Group sales available through Broadway Inbound at 212-944-4172.
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www.PattiAndMandyOnBroadway.com