LuPone Joins Patinkin In Ohio For 'An Evening' 5/5-5/17

Finally appearing together again after their Tony Award® winning performances in Evita, Patti LuPone joins Mandy Patinkin onstage for An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin. These Broadway legends will bring their critically acclaimed theatre concert to the Palace Theatre at PlayhouseSquare for 16 performances only, May 5 - 17, 2009. Tickets are currently on sale. An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin is part of the KeyBank Broadway Series at PlayhouseSquare.

Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin are two of Broadway's most venerated performers, having both won a Tony Award® for their performances in Andrew Lloyd Weber's groundbreaking Evita in 1980. Since then they have both starred in film, television, the concert stage and back to Broadway. An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin brings them together again - at last. "...this show of their own invention gives them plenty of opportunity to dazzle," raves Lawson Taitte of The Dallas Morning News. "Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim divide the honors as the show's principal composers, though there were tunes by songwriters as diverse as Vernon Duke and Antonio Carlos Jobim. But no melody was sung for its own sake. Everything had a dramatic context, however momentary, and was acted full force. You had to laugh. You had to cry. Mr. Patinkin promised he and Miss LuPone would be doing this show for the rest of their lives. We can only hope so."

The show is choreographed by fellow Broadway veteran and friend, Ann Reinking, who won a Best Choreography Tony Award® for the revival of Chicago. An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin is accompanied on piano by Mandy Patinkin's longtime pianist, Paul Ford.

Patti LuPone recently received rave reviews for her performance as Rose in a new production of the Jules Styne-Stephen Sondheim-Arthur Laurents musical Gypsy, directed by the show's author, Mr. Laurents, at New York's City Center. Last season she made her debut with the Los Angeles Opera in the company's new production of Weill-Brecht's Mahagonny and appeared in the world premiere of Jake Heggie's new opera To Hell and Back with San Francisco's Baroque Philharmonia Orchestra. Miss LuPone's recent stage credits include Sweeney Todd, the title role in the Marc Blitzstein's Regina, a musical version of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center, a critically acclaimed performance as Fosca in a concert version of Stephen Sondheim's Passion, which was also broadcast on PBS' Live From Lincoln Center and a multi-city tour of her critically acclaimed theatrical concert Matters of the Heart. In addition to Matters of the Heart, Miss LuPone also performs two other solo concerts Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda and The Lady With The Torch. Her other recent New York stage appearances include the hit revival of Michael Frayn's Noises Off, David Mamet's The Old Neighborhood, Terrence McNally's Tony Award-winning play Master Class and in her own concert Patti LuPone On Broadway, for which she won an Outer Critics Circle Award. After completing her training with the first class of the Drama Division of New York's Juilliard School, she began her career as a founding member of John Houseman's The Acting Company playing a variety of leading roles, both on and off-Broadway and on tour throughout the United States. Her subsequent New York dramatic credits include Dario Fo's Accidental Death of An Anarchist, David Mamet's The Water Engine, Edmond, The Woods and Israel Horovitz's Stage Directions. Miss LuPone's memorable performances on the New York musical stage include Vera Simpson in the City Center Encores! production of Pal Joey, Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, (1988 Drama Desk Award, Tony nomination), The Cradle Will Rock, Nancy in Oliver!, Evita (1980 Tony and Drama Desk Awards), Working and Rosamund in The Robber Bridegroon (1976 Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations). In London, she created the role of Fantine in the RSC production of Les Miserables, a role she subsequently played on the West End. For that performance, as well as the reprise of her performance in the London production of The Cradle Will Rock, she won an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Miss LuPone created the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard (1994 Olivier nomination), and recreated her Broadway performance of Maria Callas in the West End production of Master Class. Film: City By The Sea, David Mamet's Heist and State and Main, Just Looking, Summer of Sam, The 24 Hour Woman, Family Prayers, Driving Miss Daisy, Witness. TV: NBC's "Will & Grace," "Oz," the TNT film Monday Night Mayhem, "Falcone," "Bonanno: A Godfather's Story" (Showtime), "Frasier" (1998 Emmy nomination),"Law & Order", "An Evening with Patti LuPone" (PBS), the NBC movie Her Last Chance, Showtime's "The Song Spinner" (Daytime Emmy nomination, Best Actress), "The Water Engine," "L.B.J.," and ABC's "Life Goes On." Recordings include: Sweeney Todd, Pal Joey (DRG), Heatwave with John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (Phillips Classics), Sunset Boulevard (Polygram), Patti LuPone Live (RCA Victor). You can visit Miss LuPone on the worldwide web at www.pattilupone.net.

Mandy Patinkin, in his 1980 Broadway debut, won a Tony Award® for his role as Che in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita and he was nominated in 1984 for his starring role in the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Sunday in the Park with George. In 1991 he returned to Broadway in the Tony Award®-winning musical The Secret Garden and in 1997 played a sold-out engagement of his one-man concert, Mandy Patinkin in Concert, with all profits benefiting five charitable organizations. Mandy's other solo concerts, Celebrating Sondheim and Mamaloshen have been presented on Broadway, Off-Broadway and have toured the United States. Other stage credits include The Wild Party (Tony and Drama Desk nominations), Falsettos, The Winter's Tale, The Knife (Drama Desk nomination), Leave It to Beaver is Dead, Rebel Women, Hamlet, Trelawney of the ‘Wells,' The Shadow Box, The Split, Savages, and Henry IV, Part I. Feature film credits include: Everyone's Hero, Choking Man, Pinero, Elmo In Grouchland, Men with Guns, Lulu on the Bridge, The Princess Bride, Yentl, The Music of Chance, Daniel, Ragtime, Impromptu, The Doctor, Alien Nation, Dick Tracy, The House on Carroll Street, True Colors, Maxie, and Squanto: Indian Warrior. Mandy won a 1995 Emmy Award for his critically acclaimed performance in the CBS series "Chicago Hope," and he recently starred in the CBS series "Criminal Minds" as FBI profiler Jason Gideon and in the Showtime Original Series "Dead Like Me" as the reaper Rube Sofer. His other television appearances include the role of Kenneth Duberstein in the Showtime film Strange Justice, playing Quasimodo opposite Richard Harris in the TNT film presentation of "The Hunchback," and a film version of Arthur Miller's Broken Glass for BBC/WGBH-Boston. In 1989, Mandy began his concert career at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. This coincided with the release of his first solo album entitled Mandy Patinkin. Since then he has toured extensively, appearing to sold-out audiences across the United States, Canada, London and Australia, performing songs from writers including Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Irving Berlin, Randy Newman, Adam Guettel and Harry Chapin, among others. In 1990 he released his second solo album entitled Mandy Patinkin In Concert: Dress Casual on CBS Records. His 1994 recording, Experiment, on the Nonesuch label, features songs from nine decades of popular music from Irving Berlin to Alan Menken. Also recorded on the Nonesuch label is Oscar & Steve and Leonard Bernstein's New York. In 1998 he debuted his most personal project, Mamaloshen, a collection of traditional, classic and contemporary songs sung entirely in Yiddish. The recording of Mamaloshen won the Deutschen Schallplattenpreis (Germany's equivalent of the Grammy Award). In 2001, Nonesuch Records released Kidults, a collection of beloved songs, designed - as the title suggests - for the kid in every adult. And, in 2002, Nonesuch Records released Mandy Patinkin Sings Sondheim, a figurative journey through Sondheim's music and lyrics. In October 2007, Mandy debuted his newest concert with dear friend Patti LuPone and they begin touring their show An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin beginning March, 2009. Mandy resides in New York City with his wife, actress and writer Kathryn Grody, and their two sons.

 

Paul Ford was the original pianist for the Broadway productions of Stephen Sondheim's Passion, Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, the Off-Broadway production of Assassins, and most recently the revival of Pacific Overtures and the Tony award winning revival of Assassins. His other Broadway credits include Curtains, 110 in the Shade (revival), Tom Sawyer, High Society, The Rink, Rags, A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, The Secret Garden and Falsettos. Mr. Ford was the pianist for a number of concerts under the baton of Paul Gemignani including: the acclaimed Follies concert at Lincoln Center; the Carnegie Hall concert performances of A Sondheim Tribute, Anyone Can Whistle and South Pacific with Reba McEntire, A Little Night Music with the Philadelphia Symphony, Gypsy with Patti LuPone and the Chicago Symphony, and episodes of PBS' "My Favorite Broadway." He accompanied Mr. Patinkin in Mandy Patinkin: Dress Casual at the Public Theater and on Broadway, both the Broadway and Off-Broadway engagements of Mamaloshen, Celebrating Sondheim, and continues to work with him on all of his recordings and national/international tours.

Ann Reinking received the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Chicago. Choreography credits include the national tour of Applause, Chicago for Encores! NY City Center, "Bye-Bye Birdie" for ABC-TV, Legends for the Joffrey Ballet Chicago, Nilsson/Schmillson - Seattle's Spectrum Dance Theatre, Threepenny Opera- for the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Chicago starring Bebe Neuwirth and Juliet Prowse for the Civic Light Opera of Long Beach (L.A. Drama Critics Award), Suite to Sondheim for Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pal Joey for the Goodman Theatre of Chicago (Jefferson Award). Theatre credits include Roxie Hart in Chicago (Encores! NY City Center), national tour of Bye-Bye Birdie opposite Tommy Tune, Bob Fosse's Dancin' (Tony nom.), Sweet Charity (revival), Roxie Hart in Bob Fosse's Chicago; Pippin, Coco, Maggie in Over Here! (Theatre World, Clarence Derwent and Outer Critics Circle Awards), Goodtime Charley (Tony nom.), The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Feature Film credits include All That Jazz, Annie, Micki and Maude, Movie, Movie.

An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin will play May 5 through 17 in the Palace Theatre at PlayhouseSquare. Performances are Tuesday - Friday evenings at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m., and Sundays at 1:00 and 6:30 p.m. Ticket prices range from $10 to $55, and are currently on sale at the PlayhouseSquare Ticket Office (1519 Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland), online at playhousesquare.org or by calling 216-241-6000. Group orders for 15 or more may be placed by calling 216-664-6050.

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.