From Broadway to Hokey Pokey, Patinkin Shines By G. Armstrong Arizona Daily Star April 7 1999 Mandy Patinkin brought the audience flowers at the start of his concert last night in the UA's Centennial Hall. The master song stylist (and celebrated actor) carried two baskets overflowing with flowers, which he placed at each end of the stage. He then proceeded to coax open each song - Broadway standards, obscure novelties and even Yiddish numbers - as if it were a rose blooming. The popular star of movies, TV and Broadway didn't have to work hard to please the audience of about 1500 adoring fans. But he did anyway, singing for two hours straight, accompanied only by his longtime arranger and partner, pianist Paul Ford. The setting was a mostly bare backstage area. Ford played nearby on an upright piano. Dressed casually in his usual black jeans, black T-shirt and running shoes, Patinkin sang with a headset microphone, usually while standing still. Sometimes he sat. Patinkin inhabited familiar material as if each number were a role from which he could learn new truths by performing it again. This time, for us. His grasp of Broadway classics was impeccable, whether he was delivering a gregarious interpretation of Meredith Wilson's snake-oil-selling "Trouble," caressing Stephen Sondheim's "Not a Day Goes By," or wooing the crowd with Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Getting to Know You" And stripped of its exotic Polynesian trappings, "Bali Ha'i" (From "South Pacific") sounded less cheesy and more intimate than ever before. Patinkin demonstrated his uncanny abilities at channeling Al Jolson and interpreting Harry Chapin. He sang a blithe "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" as well as insightful message songs such as "You've Got to be Carefully Taught" and "Children Will Listen." Those two, as well as "Over the Rainbow," he dedicated to peace in Kosovo. Humor also was present: Yiddish translations of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and "The Hokey Pokey"; a puckish "April in Fairbanks"; and a breathlessly agile transcription of Chopin. Patinkin's elegant, acrobatic tenor is an amazing instrument with impressive range. He can leap from basso profundo to falsetto within the same phrase. And he clearly enjoys his work. Occasionally last night, he indulged his tendency toward virtuosity to a point at which some tunes seemed overwrought. No matter. He did it well, anyway. Ford was not simply an accompanist. His work with Patinkin should be typified more as a duet. The pianist led, prodded, teased and answered the singer in an ongoing melodic dialogue.