Center Theatre Group - L.A.'s Theatre Company

AN EVENING WITH PATTI LUPONE AND MANDY PATINKIN

Cast Biographies

Patti LuPone | An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin

Patti LuPone

as herself

is thrilled to be reunited with her Evita co-star for tonight’s concert. Last season, Miss 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 her performance as Madame Rose in the critically-acclaimed Broadway production of Gypsy. Her most recent 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 the Broadway production of Sondheim’s 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, a critically acclaimed performance as Fosca in a concert version of Sondheim’s Passion, which was also broadcast on PBS’ Live From Lincoln Center, and a multi-city tour of her theatrical concert Matters of the Heart. She has also performed Matters of the Heart internationally, including runs at Australia’s Sydney Festival and London’s Donmar Warehouse. Miss LuPone also performs two other solo concerts Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda (with which she made a triumphant solo concert debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall)and The Lady With The Torch (which she also premiered at Carnegie Hall). Her other recent New York stage appearances include the City Center Encores! production of Can-Can, the N.Y. Philharmonic’s productions of Candide and Sweeney Todd (N.Y. 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 sold-out solo concerts at Carnegie Hall. Beginning in 2000 she’s appeared regularly in the Ravinia Festival’s critically acclaimed Sondheim series, starring as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd, as 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. This summer she’ll return to the Ravinia Festival to perform Weill and Brecht’s The Seven Deadly Sins. 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, her subsequent New York credits include Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of An Anarchist, David Mamet’s The Water Engine, Edmond and The Woods, Israel Horovitz’s Stage Directions and performances in the musicals Pal Joey for City Center Encores!, Anything Goes, 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 Misérables 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 City By The Sea, David Mamet’s Heist and State and Main, Summer of Sam, Driving Miss Daisy, Witness. TV includes 30 Rock, Ugly Betty, NBC’s Will & Grace (as herself), the Emmy Award-winning PBS broadcasts of Passion and Sweeney Todd, PBS Great Performances’ 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 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 N.Y. Philharmonic’s Special Editions Label), Matters of the Heart (cited as one of the best recordings of 1999 by both Time Out/NYand The Times of London), Pal Joey, Heatwave with John Mauceri and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra,
Sunset Boulevard and Patti LuPone Live.www.pattilupone.net.

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Patti LuPone | An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin

Mandy Patinkin

as himself

recently celebrated the 20th Anniversary of performing his critically acclaimed 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. 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. 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 concert, Mandy Patinkin in Concert, with all profits benefiting five charitable organizations. Mandy’s other solo concerts, Celebrating Sondheim and Mamaloshen have been presented both on Broadway and off. Other stage credits include playing Prospero in The Tempest with Classic Stage Company, 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. He won a 1995 Emmy Award (as well as Golden Globe and SAG nominations) for his critically acclaimed 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. 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 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 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 the live recording of 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 began touring their show An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin throughout the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. Mandy resides in New York City with his wife, actress and writer Kathryn Grody, and their two sons. www.mandypatinkin.org.

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Credits

Paul Ford

Music Director, Piano

was the original pianist for the Broadway productions of Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Passion, Assassins, the revival of Pacific Overtures and the Tony Award-winning revival of Assassins. His other Broadway credits include the revival of Pal Joey, 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 the acclaimed Follies concert at Lincoln Center, the Carnegie Hall concert performances of A Sondheim Tribute, Anyone Can Whistle, A Little Night Music with the Philadelphia Symphony, Gypsy with Patti LuPone and the Chicago Symphony and episodes of PBS’ My Favorite Broadway, all under the baton of Paul Gemignani. Last year he played for the televised production of Camelot with the N.Y. Philharmonic and Show Boat at Carnegie Hall. Paul has accompanied Mr. Patinkin in Mandy Patinkin: Dress Casual at the Public Theater and on Broadway in Mamaloshen and Celebrating Sondheim, and continues to work with him on all of his recordings and national/international tours.

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David Korins

Production Designer

Broadway: Passing Strange, Bridge and Tunnel. NYC: The Receptionist - Hewes nomination, Pumpgirl - Hewes nomination, Romantic Poetry (MTC), The Wiz (City Center), The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Roundabout), Hamlet (Delacorte), Passing Strange, Yellow Face, Why Torture is Wrong… (Public), Jack Goes Boating - Lortel and Drama Desk nominations (LAByrinth), Farragut North (Atlantic), Drunken City, Floyd and Clea..., Miss Witherspoon (Playwrights Horizons), Blackbird - Hewes Award and Drama Desk nomination, Orange Flower Water - Drama Desk nomination, Essential Self-Defense - Lortel and Drama Desk nominations (Edge), Hunting and Gathering - Hewes and Drama Desk nominations (Primary Stages), Rent, A New Brain (Tokyo). Davidkorinsdesign.com.

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Eric Cornwell

Lighting Designer

has been associated with Mandy Patinkin’s tours and Broadway concerts for the past 19 years. He has also created lighting for Patti LuPone, Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson, and dozens of dance, opera and theatre companies in the New York area. Eric’s lighting work has taken him through Europe, Asia, South America and Australia. While waiting for gigs in Africa and Antarctica to complete his world tour, he teaches at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, CT.

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Daniel J. Gerhard

Sound Designer

has extensive audio design experience in the live and recorded divisions of the business. He has designed and engineered many live telecast events such as the Tony Awards, the Grammy Awards, Comedy Central Series and numerous specials. Dan has created studio designs for the Late Show with David Letterman, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Survivor and others. Additionally, Dan has designed theatrical and multi-media shows in the U.S., Europe and Japan such as Sinatra, His Voice, His World, His Way, Damn Yankees, Hello, Dolly!, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Pirates of Penzance and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular across North America. Dan still performs as a flutist, his original vocation. He graduated from the Eastman School of Music, and has performed with such groups as the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the N.Y. Philharmonic, the San Diego Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic and the Metrpolitan Opera.

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Ann Reinking

Choreagrapher

received the 1997 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for the Broadway revival of Chicago. Choreography credits include the national tour of Applause, Chicago for Encores! N.Y. City Center, Bye Bye Birdie for ABC-TV, Legends for the Joffrey Ballet Chicago, Nilsson/Schmillson for 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 Circle Award), Suite to Sondheim for Pacific Northwest Ballet and Pal Joey for the Goodman Theatre of Chicago (Jefferson Award). Performance credits include Roxie Hart in Chicago (Encores! N.Y. City Center), national tour of Bye Bye Birdie opposite Tommy Tune, Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ (1978 Tony nomination), 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 (1975 Tony nomination), The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Feature film credits include All That Jazz, Annie, Micki and Maude, Movie Movie.  

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Photo Credit

(L to R) Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin. Photo by Brigitte Lacombe.