Patti LuPone and Mandy Patikin sing musical theater classics
You’ll be laughing, clapping and singing along with two of Broadway’s greatest performers, Mandy Patinkin and Patti LaPone, as they bring to life over thirty songs from different musicals in the show, “An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin” at the Ahmanson Theater of the Center Theatre Group in Downtown Los Angeles. The two play out a romantic comedy story line by expertly stringing songs together from Sondheim to Rogders and Hammerstein to Irving Berlin and many other musical theater favorites.
LaPone and Patinkin make you feel like you’re watching them in their living room as they are completely comfortable, relaxed and playful during the performance. Since this show originally debuted in 2007, practice makes perfectly unperturbed singers. Before that, LaPone and Patinkin co-starred with one another in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita, where in 1980, Patinkin won a Tony award for his role as Che.
The pair work synergistically to create a harmonious performance, both sharing the limelight of the almost bare stage except for a few stylistic lamp stands of Thomas Edison light bulbs and a pianist and upright bass player. Dressed in all black with simple lighting and only a scarf and chairs for props, the night was solely dedicated to celebrating the classics songs of musical theater.
LuPone and Patinkin are perfect choices to give a tribute to American musical theater as they have more than sixty years combined career accomplishments that are as long as the Statue of Liberty is tall. Last season, LuPone won 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 performance as Madame Rose in the critically acclaimed Broadway production of Gypsy. Patinkin recently celebrated the 20th Anniversary of performing his critically renowned solo concerts, Dress Casual, Celebrating Sondheim and Mamaloshen, in rep with a two-week run at New York’s Public Theater, the very space he began his concert career 20 years ago.
Some of the audience’s favorite songs of the night were, Stephen Sondheim’s “Getting Married Today” from Company, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” from Evita, Jule Styne’s and Stephen Sondheim’s “Everything is Coming up Roses” from Gypsy, and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “If I Loved You” from Carousel.
To get tickets for the musical theater lover in you, go online to: www.centertheatregroup.org.
Performance Days and Times:
Through Friday June 26th: 8pm
Sat June 27th: 2pm, 8pm
Sun June 28th: 3pm
Mon June 29th: 8 pm
Tickets: $20 – $90
Ahmanson Theatre at the Music Center
135 N. Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA
213.628.2772
