Patinkin works it just right with dynamics and drama

By M. Hocanadel
Schenectady Sunday Gazette
October 21, 2001

SCHENECTADY - Mandy Patinkin carried two flower arrangements onstage himself at Proctor's Theatre Saturday, turned to where Paul Ford had seated himself at a small rehearsal piano and was playing a soft bass throb; then Patinkin sang a witty, vitriolic adieu to Broadway.

You could take Patinkin off Broadway, but he brings Broadway with him, celebrating its sing-to-the-balcony bombast, its sophisticated sentimentality and that uncanny intimacy it has when everything works just right.

Patinkin knows how to work it just right.

Patinkin and Ford performed on a nearly bare stage, open to the back wall and littered with a ladder and traveling cases, expertly lighted for that theater-with-the-skin-off, backstage starkness.

Dispensing with Proctor's usual context of curtain and backdrop, he sang the same way: taking Broadway tunes out of their contexts of plot and atmosphere to sing them as pure music.

In effect, he became the context himself, through astounding mastery of gesture, dynamics and drama, with great hands, flawless diction even at blinding speed, and great command of his tenor-baritone pipes.

He was also a manic loony tune.

Early on, he donned a hand puppet for a schizophrenic, revved romp through "Holiday for Strings," alternating verses in his big bel canto style with a snide, nasal rasp, the puppet's voice. Later, he slammed "Singing in the Bathtub" into "Singin' In the Rain," talked about his wardrobe (running shoes, slacks and a T-shirt: minimalist, like the stage), family and career, interrupting himself to heckle latecomers - it's dangerous to arrive late to his shows and sit down front - and closed this 20-minute chat with "Supercalifragilisticexpialidociou s," in Yiddish.

Then he pushed the joke far further, zipping into "The Hokey Pokey" in Yiddish, demanding the house lights to be turned on so he could see the crowd and insisting everybody jump up and dance it as he sang. Everybody did, and sang "Trouble" loudly for him later.

However, amid all this mirth, he also managed lovely, persuasive singing, especially in a hushed "Cat's In the Cradle," tossing a kiss to its composer, the late Harry Chapin. He wrapped his delicate, agile falsetto beautifully around "Bali Hai," and offered a reassuringly parental "Growing Pains."

Later, after "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in Yiddish, he turned serious as a vast American flag fell into place behind him, singing "God Bless America" in Yiddish as the audience unanimously jumped up and sang it in English.

Late in the set, the whole crowd right in his pocket, he steered from one Broadway love song into another in a seamless flow, riding Ford's discrete, perfect piano accompaniment.

Patinkin's performance was the centerpiece of Proctor's 75th Anniversary Season Gala Fundraiser, with a champagne reception before the show and a dinner with dancing afterward. It was a night of tuxes, gowns, suits and a remarkably confident, commanding display of old-fashioned entertaining.