Kennedy Center Hosts AN EVENING WITH PATTI LUPONE AND MANDY PATINKIN, Beg. Tonight

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presents An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin tonight, February 18 to the 23rd, 2014 in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. Appearing together again after their Tony Award winning performances in Evita, Patti LuPone joins Mandy Patinkin onstage for eight performances. 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 Webber'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. Press opening night is Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.

The production includes choreography 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 features production design by David Korins, lighting design by Eric Cornwell, sound design by Daniel Gerhard, and piano accompaniment by music director Paul Ford.

Patti LuPone is thrilled to be reunited with her Evita co-star for this concert. Author of the New York Times bestseller, Patti LuPone A Memoir, Miss LuPone's most recent Broadway appearances include David Mamet's The Anarchist and the new musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, for which she was nominated for Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards. Other recent New York stage appearances include her debut with the New York City Ballet as guest soloist in their new production of The Seven Deadly Sins and her performance as Joanne in the New York Philharmonic's production of Company. Winner of the Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress in a Musical and the Drama League Award for Outstanding Performance of the Season for her performance as Madame Rose in the most recent Broadway production of Gypsy, her other stage credits include her debut with the Los Angeles Opera in Weill-Brecht's Mahagonny, the world premiere of Jake Heggie's opera To Hell and Back with San Francisco's Baroque Philharmonia Orchestra, Mrs. Lovett in John Doyle's production of Sweeney Todd (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle nominations; Drama League Award for Outstanding Contribution to Musical Theatre), the title role in Marc Blitzstein's Regina, a musical version of Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes at the Kennedy Center, Fosca in a concert version of Passion, which was also broadcast on PBS's Live From Lincoln Center, a multi-city tour of her theatrical concert Matters of the Heart, the City Center Encores! production of Can-Can, the NY Philharmonic's productions of Candide and Sweeney Todd (NY Phil debut) and performances on Broadway in Michael Frayn's Noises Off, David Mamet's The Old Neighborhood, Terrence McNally's Master Class, in her own concert Patti LuPone On Broadway and three solo concerts at Carnegie Hall. In addition to Matters of the Heart she also performs three other concerts Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda, The Lady With The Torch, and The Gypsy In My Soul. Beginning in 2000 she has appeared regularly in the Ravinia Festival's Sondheim series, starring as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, Desiree in A Little Night Music, Fosca in Passion, Cora Hooper in Anyone Can Whistle, Madame Rose in Gypsy and in two different roles in Sunday in the Park with George. A graduate of the first class of the Drama Division of New York's Juilliard School and a founding member of John Houseman's The Acting Company in which she toured the country for four years, her subsequent New York credits include Dario Fo's Accidental Death of An Anarchist, David Mamet's The Water Engine, Edmond, and The Woods and Israel Horovitz's Stage Directions and performances in the musicals Pal Joey for City Center Encores!, Anything Goes (Tony Award nomination, Drama Desk Award), The Cradle Will Rock, Oliver!, Evita (Tony and Drama Desk Awards- Best Actress in a Musical), Working and The Robber Bridegroom. In London, she won the Olivier Award for her performances as Fantine in the original production of LES MISERABLES and in The Acting Company production of The Cradle Will Rock. She also created the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard and recreated her Broadway performance of Maria Callas in Master Class. Films include: Union Square, directed by Nancy Savocca, Parker, directed by Taylor Hackford, City By The Sea, Heist and State and Main, both written and directed by David Mamet; Summer of Sam, Driving Miss Daisy, Witness. TV includes: American Horror Story: Coven, Glee, 30 Rock, Ugly Betty, NBC's Will & Grace, the Emmy Award winning PBS broadcasts of Passion and Sweeney Todd, PBS Great Performances's Candide, Oz, the TNT film Monday Night Mayhem, Frasier (1998 Emmy nomination), Law & Order, An Evening with Patti LuPone (PBS) and ABC's Life Goes On. Recordings include: Far Away Places, Patti LuPone at Les Mouches, the 2008 Broadway cast recording of Gypsy, The Lady With the Torch, Sweeney Todd (both the 2006 Broadway revival cast recording and 2000 live performance recording on New York Philharmonic's Special Editions Label), Matters of the Heart (cited as one of the best recordings of 1999 by both Time Out/NY and The Times of London), Pal Joey, Heatwave with John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; Sunset Boulevard, and Patti LuPone Live. www.pattilupone.net.

Mandy Patinkin. In his 1980 Broadway debut, Mandy won a Tony Award for his role as Che in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita and was nominated in 1984 for his starring role as George 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 show, Mandy Patinkin in Concert, with all profits benefiting five charitable organizations. Mandy's other solo concerts, Dress Casual, Celebrating Sondheim, and Mamaloshen have been presented both on Broadway and Off. In 2009 he celebrated the 20th anniversary of performing his solo concerts with a two-week run of all of his concerts in rep at New York's Public Theater, the very space he began his concert career. Mandy continued the celebration with a critically acclaimed two-week run of Mandy Patinkin in Concert in London's West End at the Duke of York's Theatre. Mandy's other stage credits include: the world premiere of Compulsion, a new play by Rinne Groff and directed by Oskar Eustis, appearing in productions of the play at Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, and finally at The Public Theater in early 2011, Paradise Found (London's Menier Chocolate Factory), The Tempest (Classic Stage Company), Enemy of the People (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The Wild Party (2000 Tony nomination), Falsettos, The Winter's Tale, The Knife, 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: Everybody's Hero, The Choking Man, Pinero, The Adventures of Elmo In Grouchland, Lulu on the Bridge, Men with Guns, The Princess Bride, Yentl (1984 Golden Globe nomination), 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 (as well as a Golden Globe nomination) for his performance in the CBS series Chicago Hope, and 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. Mandy returns to TV in the Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning Showtime Original Series Homeland as CIA Agent Saul Berenson. 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, a film version of Arthur Miller's Broken Glass for BBC/WGBH-Boston and episodes of Three Rivers, The Larry Sanders Show (1996 Emmy nomination), Law & Order, Boston Public, Touched by an Angel, and The Simpsons. 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 are Oscar & Steve, Leonard Bernstein's New York, Kidults and Mandy Patinkin Sings Sondheim. 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 October 2007, Mandy debuted a new concert with dear friend Patti LuPone and they continue touring their show An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin throughout the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and most recently during a nine-week Broadway run at the Barrymore Theatre. Mandy continues to collaborate with An Evening with Mandy Patinkin & Nathan Gunn and most recently The Last Two People on Earth: An Apocalyptic Vaudeville starring Mandy and the performance artist Taylor Mac, with direction and choreography by Susan Stroman and Bridges, a new concert starring Mandy, Paul Ford, and a Middle Eastern trio. Mandy resides in New York City with his wife, actress and writer Kathryn Grody.

An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin runs in the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater February 18 - 23, 2014. Performances will take place Tuesday through Sunday evening in the Eisenhower Theater at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00 p.m. Tickets start at $95 and can be purchased at the Kennedy Center box office, online, or by calling Instant Charge at (202) 467-4600. Patrons living outside the Washington metropolitan area may dial toll-free at (800) 444-1324 or visit us online at www.kennedy-center.org.

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