Review: Mandy Patinkin Performs Passionately for National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene at Jazz at Lincoln Center

In its robust 101st season, National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene is the longest consecutively producing Yiddish theater company in the world. Its mission: To celebrate the Jewish experience through the performing arts and to transmit rich cultural legacy in exciting new ways. The theatre's Gala 2016 this past Monday evening at The Rose Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center honored Artistic Director Zalmen Mlotek--long a leading figure in Yiddish performing arts--and his wife Debra Mlotek (a pediatric occupational therapist), who has been pivotal in creating educational children's programs.

Many years ago, Joseph Papp, founder of The Public Theater, telephoned Mandy Patinkin with a request that he sing "Yossel Yossel" at an evening honoring the producer/director. Patinkin admitted that not only didn't he know the song, but his repertoire included no Yiddish music. "You have to learn, his friend and mentor told him, "It's your job." So he did, inclusively recording a CD called Mamaloshen.

On this night, Patinkin is the featured performer and begins the concert with several Yiddish songs, including a selection dedicated to Papp. Later, he would invite Zalmen Mlotek, one of several men through whom he learned the material, back on stage to perform something in Yiddish that Mlotek's parents loved. Zalmen both sings and translates: Who can understand the beauty of the sea?/Who can understand the sweetness of the earth? Touching.

Suddenly the mood changes as Patinkin launches into the vaudevillian "Sam, You Made the Pants Too Long" (Milton Berle) in perfect tandem with "Cohen Owes Me Ninety-Seven Dollars," a litany of uncollected debts delivered by a man ostensibly on his death bed. He recovers. When people start to pay/It's no time to pass away (Irving Berlin). Attitude and inflection are pitch perfect. Patinkin can execute shtick.

At this point a couple enters the concert hall some 25 minutes late. "Are you just getting here?!" the performer asks rhetorically. "Where were you?" The halting response: "It wasn't my fault." Patinkin then engages the squirming attendee in provocative conversation ending with a demand for compensating his being upset. The audience member, should, he suggests, contribute $25,000 to the theatre. No? $10,000? $5,000? By the time he's finished, having declared there isn't anything he wouldn't do for the organization so dear to his heart, a women calls out she'll donate the $5,000, which Patinkin then matches. This is a man on a mission.

The artist presents a jam-packed evening of musical numbers in Yiddish and English, stories, and heartfelt commendation of the organization about which he's passionate and to which he lends his talent. He moves like a dancer, often taking a signature stance-left knee bent, right leg back, knee bent-and mimes for emphasis. Patinkin has a remarkable vocal range, otherworldly control, and the theatricality of a Shakespearean actor who can affect physical frisson.

Songs in Yiddish recognized by those of us who don't understand the language include "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (Jack Norworth/ Albert Von Tilzer) and "White Christmas" (Irving Berlin.) Others come across as extraordinarily theatrical vocal performance, much like opera without subtitles. Patinkin can be epic. Sometimes the audience spontaneously claps in time. For several songs, he's accompanied by the breathtaking musicianship of violinist, Hanna Khory whose meticulous bow moves like hummingbird wings.

Some songs simply arrive, others are set up. Patinkin met Stephen Sondheim almost in passing at one of director Hal Prince's parties. The composer/lyricist would change his life. A dramatic rendition of Sondheim's "Anyone Can Whistle" is followed by entertaining anecdotes about the production of Sunday in the Park with George in which Patinkin would eventually star and for which he even took art classes at The Art Students League. Though the musical's terrific success advanced his career, the artist says it was a lyric that began to "define" his life: Connect, George, Connect.

The advice is given George Seurat and his lover Dot's great-grandson, also an artist named George, by his 98 year-old grandmother Marie. Patinkin took it to heart. We're treated to "Children and Art" and "Sunday," the latter pristine with only piano accompaniment. One can almost hear each character in the painting add his or her voice as this single one swells.

A surprising version of Meredith Wilsons "Rock Island" from The Music Man, usually delivered by a train full of travelling salesmen, is here vocally performed by Patinkin and Musical Director/pianist Adam Ben-David with sparkling enthusiasm and precision. David, it should be noted, accompanies symbiotically, wielding arrangements which are immensely deft.

"It's not just about Yiddish," Patinkin says, "Let it wash over you. It doesn't matter if you understand every word . . . It's about our heritage . . . Every part I play is Jewish because I'm Jewish . . . Whoever you are, you're not far from your culture." The artist quotes a lyric from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel: As long as there's one person on earth who remembers you, it isn't over. "Sing the songs and tell the stories. They keep all humanity alive."

The Red Hot Yiddishe Mamas and a multitude of children dressed in their finest fill the large stage around Patinkin for a Yiddish "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (Harold Arlen/E.Y. Harburg) ending in the English: If happy little bluebirds fly/Beyond the rainbow/Why, oh why can't I?" Indeed.

National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene : http://nytf.org/ Coming Up: The Second International Festival of Jewish Performing Arts June 6-August 29 that includes the revival of two-time Drama Desk nominated The Golden Bride. www.KulturfestNYC.org

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