Two Broadway Legends

Seeing a Broadway show is something I don’t get to do often enough so when I get the chance I cross my fingers that it’s going to be great. Recently I caught An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin and if it wasn’t the greatest show the two performers certainly were.

On a stage decorated with a series of ghost lights, the two Broadway legends run through an eclectic series of songs from the musical canon including selections from South Pacific, Merrily We Roll Along, and Carousel. Some of the choices are perfect—LuPone’s spot on rendition of “Getting Married Today” from Company and Patinkin’s hilarious delivery of “In Buddy’s Eyes” from Follies while some others, like the multiple songs from Carousel performed at the end of the show, seem like an odd choice. But I’m not complaining. I’d probably sit and listen to these two sing from the phone book.

There is little talking in the show; the audience is left to figure out for themselves whatever tenuous connections exist between the songs. Yet there is one story that Patinkin does stop to share with the audience—how he and LuPone first came to work together in that show. With the audience collectively leaning forward in anticipation, each star takes turns singing a song from Evita. Patinkin shows he can still channel Che's r

age in "Oh What a Circus" and hearing LuPone sing “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” acts as a reminder that there is only one Evita.

The show is at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre through January 13. To find out more, visit the show’s site here.

Photo by Brigitte Lacombe.