Patinkin Celebrates Yiddish Songs Associated Press October 20, 1999 By Michael Kuchwara   ``Mamaloshen,'' Mandy Patinkin's one-man celebration of Yiddish songs, is the best kind of nostalgia. It honors the past by making it accessible, entertaining and meaningful to the present. The show whose title means ``Mother Tongue'' in Yiddish is now on view at Broadway's Belasco Theater, after a successful run on the Lower East Side. It is an intimate, personal concert. Patinkin, dressed in casual basic black, performs on a nearly bare stage, bookended by large floral arrangements. Eric Stern, nearly hidden by his piano, sits to one side. Patinkin saunters on stage and sings. No dialogue. No patter with the audience. Just song after song, sung with all the fervor and emotional intensity that Patinkin can muster which is plenty. The star takes these numbers, many of them folklike in their simplicity, and elevates them to art songs, although their subject matter is not what one usually would associate with that rarefied type of song. They are linked with bits and pieces in English of Paul Simon's ``American Tune.'' Overhead, brief, one-sentence summaries of the numbers appear. They give a sense, if not a complete description, of what Patinkin performs. For example, descriptions read, ``A mother rocks her child, wishes him everything''; and, ``A guy wants 10 pennies to romance his girl''; and the comic, ``A mother questions her daughter.'' Much of the material traces the Jewish immigrant experience, from ``Remembering a little town called Belz'' to ``A sweatshop worker struggles to support his family.'' And then there are permutations on American life, done with a delicious immigrant twist: Yiddish versions of ``The Hokey Pokey,'' ``Take Me Out to the Ball Game,'' ``God Bless America'' and, as an encore, ``Over the Rainbow,'' one of Patinkin's standards from an earlier one-man show. Patinkin has said that Yiddish is not a religious language, but a street language. The performer's supple voice handles that toughness well. Growls, coos, crackles, sobs, shouts and soaring high notes. Patinkin has them all. Diminutive violinist Saeka Matsuyama gives the evening an ecumenical flavor. She accompanies Patinkin and Stern on several numbers. Her shy, solemn demeanor beautifully plays off Patinkin's ornate vocal pyrotechnics. The evening barely lasts an hour. Yet theatergoers will feel they have gotten their money's worth. Patinkin's musical statement goes beyond the particular, transforming this parade of songs into a heartfelt universal experience.

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