"Patinkin Brings Passion to San Francisco Concerts" Manteca Bulletin April 1999 ...Her costar from 'Sunday' Mandy Patinkin, has also earned a degree of mass market stardom--not from his Tony-winning turns in either that show, or EVITA, but for his roles in such films as The Princess Bride and Yentl and his TV work (Chicago Hope, The Hunchback of Notre Dame). Patinkin, who's appearing in concert through Sunday at San Francisco's Orpheum Theatre is best seen live. A master interpreter of popular song, Patinkin delivers a song like Olivier rendering Shakespeare. Dressed casually in his concert uniform of black T-shirt, matching pants and gray running shoes, he doesn't look like someone critic Clive Barnes would call "the greatest entertainer on Broadway today". But within minutes of his conversational, always humorous welcome to the audience, the bare stage seems to fill with scenery, the single upright piano (played by the brilliant Paul Ford) becomes an orchestra, and Patinkin himself conjures a cast of hundreds as he weaves seemingly incongruous songs into incredibly meaningful medleys. First and foremost, Patinkin is a storyteller, with some stories familiar (Harry Chapin's "Taxi," Meredith Wilson's "Trouble," Rodger's and Hammerstein's "If I loved You," Sondheim's "Being Alive," some obscure "April In Fairbanks" from"New Faces of 1956". He's also a caring individual and devoted family man. That devotion, which he gave as the reason for giving up his Emmy-winning role on CBS drama Chicago Hope was evident as he recalled meeting and courting wife Kathryn Grody, as well as in stories about his children. Hi familial concerns also extend globally, and he took time between encores on Monday night to voice his distress over the current situation in Kosovo and last week's murders in Littleton, Colorado. Patinkin took this opportunity to talk about a pair of pet charities that he's promoting during this current concert tour: the pro-gun registration lobby PAX and the emergency-relief group Doctors without Borders. Following the last of his three encores, he did as promised during his charitable pitch, running up the aisle with a cardboard box, which he invited audience members to fill as he signed autographs and posed for pictures in the lobby. True to his word, he scrawled Mandy Patinkin on assorted programs and pictures and smiled graciously until the last balcony member exited the theatre. It was a refreshing and appropriate end to what was a very human, very intimate evening.

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