Mother Love Mandy's better half explores her Life. By Kathy Henderson In Theater Magazine, October 23, 1998 When Mandy Patinkin quit his Emmy-winning role on CBS's Chicago Hope to spend more time with his family, the media seemed amazed. "People wrote articles about that decision for three years," marvels Kathryn Grody, a.k.a. Mrs. P. and the mother of Isaac, now 16, and Gideon, 12. "I was certainly proud of him, but how many women have done the same thing? Nobody ever wrote an op-ed piece about me, because that's what mothers are supposed to do. As far as I'm concerned, kids won't be okay in this country until everybody embraces flex time, not just the friggin' moms!" Any mother (particularly any new mom) can identify with the experiences Grody recounts in her funny, insightful one-woman show, A Mom's Life. The Obie-winning actress first performed her autobiographical play at the Public Theater in 1990; now, in a clever bit of scheduling, she'll give three performances of A Mom's Life at the Belasco on Oct. 19, Oct. 26, and Nov. 2, the nights Mamaloshen is dark. After an aborted attempt to turn her show into a TV series, Grody retired A Mom's Life and turned her attention to other writing projects. A year ago, she says, "Two very persistent producers from St. Louis asked me to come to their one-woman play festival -- me and Karen Finley, no less." Grody's set, an elaborate re-creation of her pre-war West Side apartment, had been lost, so director Jack Hofsiss convinced her to do the show on an empty stage. "I think it makes the play stronger," she says, adding that her sons were fascinated by her portrayal of them as lovable, demanding preschoolers. "Gideon's character [in the show] doesn't take responsibility when something goes wrong, and he said, 'Some things never change, do they, Mom?' They were quite proud of it." One strength of A Mom's Life is that it dares to be truthful about new mothers who become too possessive and new fathers who continue their work lives as if nothing has changed. "When I wrote the first draft of the play, Mandy said 'Don't be afraid to be tougher on me.'" Grody recalls. She was -- but she also painted herself as overly permissive and prone to angry outbursts. "I was a mess!" she says cheerfully. "There's a point in the piece where I'm ruining our older son, and [the father] has to say, 'Excuse me -- who are the parents here?'" Though Grody credits her husband for the bright idea of bringing A Mom's Life to Broadway, she laughingly reports that Patinkin had second thoughts when he saw the piece again. "He said, 'Am I a complete idiot to have you portray me like this now? Everybody thinks I'm a good father'" Click to return to In Theater's Mandy Patinkin article