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For a O&A with
Mandy Patinkin
by Jayplay
writer Donovan
Atkinson, go to
www.kansan.com
/stories/jayplay
are on television as Dr. Camy for his performance like Me. But if you're like ng just one quote from
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But Patinkin has done more than portray a Spanish swordman with an indecipherable accent and a need to find the six-fingered man who killed his father. Patinkin has played in a wide range of roles: A selfish junk man in The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, a love-sick student and object of Barbra Striesand's affection in Yentl, a displaced alien cop in Alien Nation. In addition to his acting, he has also enjoyed a successful singing career, which included his one man show Dress Casual, and released seven albums.
"He's so versatile, as versatile as any performer I can think of," says Jack Wright, professor of theater and film and moderator for this Saturday's "A Conversation with Mandy Patinkin." He has such a dynamic casting range that he can play the leading man or act in character roles, Wright says.
But while Patinkin has had success in film and television, some critics have written that this one-man vaudeville act is best on the stage and that film hasn't given him great opportunities for his talents. That may be true, says Ron Willis, professor emeritus, but it doesn't loam as a real criticism. Some people are explosive on stage but come across lackluster on film, he says. Patinkin's energy still carries across, but film editing changes the dynamic that he normally has on stage. "You can see the magnetic force," says Willis, who directed Patinkin in a 1971 University Theatre production of Lysistrata. "There's such a high concentration of energy, you have a hard time taking your eyes from him."
Even when Patinkin was an undergraduate at the University he displayed the same qualities that punctuate his work. Sandy Wong, 1973 graduate, remembers that he
really got into the role of Sancho Panza for the musical Man of La Mancha. "I remember him being outstanding," she says. "I've always been in awe of his abilities."
For his production of Lysistrata, Willis wanted the set to be very close to the audience, to overwhelm them with scaffolding that went to the ceiling of the Crafton-Preyer Theatre. The actors were to come in and awe the audience, climbing the scaffolding. When Willis told the actors his plan, Patinkin had one request. "He said
A Conversation with Mandy Patinkin
Patkin, who attended the University from 1970 to 1972, will come back to campus this Saturday, April 9, for a one-night event. "A Conversation with Mandy Patkin," Moderated by Jack Wright, professor of theater and film, the event is a benefit to raise funds for the purchase of new equipment to help patrons with hearing challenges in Murphy Hall's Crafton-Preyer Theatre and for a scholarship fund for undergraduate film students. The show starts at 8 p.m. Reserved-seat tickets for "A Conversation with Mandy Patkin" are on sale in the University Theatre ticket office, (785) 864-3982, and online at kutheatre.com. Public tickets are $40, student tickets are$ 20.
'Let me be first, let me be first,' Willis says.
"He made every part his own," says Christy Brandt, who worked with Patinkin at the Creede Repertory Theatre in Creede, Colo., after he had left the University to go to Juliard. He brought something of his own to every part he took, and showed great, imagination and extraordinary talent. Brandt, a 1973 graduate, says that Patinkin was always ambitious and wanted to make it as an actor, working hard and dedicating himself to everything that he did. "Mandy needed to
be a star," Brandt says, "and once he became a star it really relaxed him."
But Patinkin's not strictly a career man. "He's not one who's had a career and no life," Brandt says. Patinkin married actress/playwright Kathryn Grody in 1980 and they have two sons, Isaac and Gideon. Grody used their experiences raising their sons for her one-woman show, A Mom's Life.
In addition to his work on stage and on the screen, Patinkin is also active politically and contributes to a number of different social causes. He also maintains a home in Creede, Colo., and still is involved with the Creede Repertory Theatre, working with the theater's board to keep things up-to-date. Brandt says that he has been helpful in keeping the theater aware of new trends in theater because of his continuing experience with modern theaters that not everyone in the small mountain town of Creede has the opportunity to find out about.
And through all of his success, Patinkin has remained a Jayhawk at heart. When he was performing his one-man show, Dress Casual, in Kansas City, Jack Wright took him a stuffed Jayhawk. Patinkin did a short version of the Rock Chalk Chant when Wright gave it to him. Patinkin has kept close to his Jayhawk roots. The Creede Repertory Theatre was founded by University graduates in 1966. When Patinkin came to campus in 2001 for an impromptu visit during one of his tours, he brought along one of his sons so he could get a look before applying to colleges. They spent a day touring campus and looking at all of the new buildings. "He was very excited to be back on campus," Wright says.
datkinson@kansan.com
Bio in Brief
Name: Mandel Bruce Patkinin
Born: November 30, 1952
Family: Kathryn Groody, wife, Isaac and Gideon, sons,
Doralie Patkinin Rubin, mother
Notable works:
Television:
◆ Dead Like Me—Rube Sofer, 2003
◆ Chicago Hope—Dr. Jeffrey Geiger, 1994, 1995,
1999, 2000
The critics weigh in on Mandy
Yentl (1983)
"A lot of the charm comes from the cheerful high energy of the actors, not only Streisand (who gives her best performance) but also Mandy Patinkin, as her long-suffering roommate, and Amy Irving, as the girl Patinkin loves and Streisand marries. There are, obviously, a lot of tricky scenes involving this triangle, but the movie handles them all with taste, tact and humor."
Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times
The Princess Bride (1987)
"Mr. Patinkin, who is particularly good, turns up to be
20th Century Fox
turns out to be
a fine swasstbuckle, albeit not a very clever one; his heroic presence is somehow only enhanced by a halfway-impenetrable Spanish accent."
— Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Dick Tracy (1990)
"The most tellingly romantic Sondheim number is "What Can You Lose" -- a duet for Madonna and the gifted Mandy Patinkin, who plays Breathless's lovesick accompanist, 88 Keys. But the song is mostly played over shots of Tracy and the Kid at a diner."
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Dead Like Me (2003)
Showtime Networks
"And Patinkin is the anchor here, his performance a mixture of the workingman's
knowing acceptance of fate and an unbridled optimism that keeps levity alive (essential in the death game). His Rube is also a fatherly figure to George without being too sugar. He's a mentor. He's helping the new kid out – and there's much to laugh about along the way."
— Tim Goodman,
The San Francisco Chronicle