Last night, in the strangely unseasonal weather (very warm! much rain!), we braved it over to the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts (and we didn't even need an ark!) to see Mandy Patinkin's show, Dress Casual. I can't say I was the youngest person in the audience, because I saw two little girls there with their families. I can probably safely say that both mom and I were the only shiksas present though. We had happily unobstructed seats in the balcony (I live in constant fear every time I go to the North Shore Center, even though the Northlight thing happened in a totally separate theater. Same building) and we were sitting right in front of a Patinkin relative (I thought it was a little weird that the poor old girl had to sit all the way the hell up in the balcony, but whatev.)
The show was lots of fun - Mandy greeted the Skokie crowd warmly, reminisced about his childhood on the south side of Chicago, attending some Jewish Community Center type dances in his youth, some favorite makeout spots... He had a few major technical glitches with a new microphone type thing he said he was trying out - a contraption that fit over his ears and were like eyeglasses in the back of his head - at one point he ripped the thing off and just held the mic part, causing him to quip, midsong "I had an easier time with prostate cancer!"
But he managed to sort it out and sang to us, wonderful songs from Sondheim ("Children and Art" "Sunday" "end in the Clowns," I know there were others but now I am blanking)..., Rodgers & Hammerstein, some American Songbook classics, some what I assume was Yiddish. He made us all stand up and do the hokey pokey whilst he sang along (in Yiddish!) which was actually very much fun. He talked about politics, sex, and religion, adding that the world is awfully screwed up because of these three things but, "Now we have Obama, and it's gonna be okay." He's a performer, a big ham, and the voice was strong and solid and unique as ever.
At the end of the show, he said he'd sing "one more" and the crowd started tossing out requests. "Fuck it," he announced to his long time accompanist, "It's been microphone hell night, let's give them what they want!" and he launched into a pretty long encore set that included "Oh What a Circus" from Evita (a request... I think... that prompted him to comment "That gentleman shouted out something about that show... about that bitch from Argentina..."), "Bring Him Home" from Les Miz, and oh, a few others. It was a lovely fun evening, and I am glad I decided last Monday to buy these tickets!! After the show, we sloshed home again, only to find that our basement had flooded. But that's another story...
The show was lots of fun - Mandy greeted the Skokie crowd warmly, reminisced about his childhood on the south side of Chicago, attending some Jewish Community Center type dances in his youth, some favorite makeout spots... He had a few major technical glitches with a new microphone type thing he said he was trying out - a contraption that fit over his ears and were like eyeglasses in the back of his head - at one point he ripped the thing off and just held the mic part, causing him to quip, midsong "I had an easier time with prostate cancer!"
But he managed to sort it out and sang to us, wonderful songs from Sondheim ("Children and Art" "Sunday" "end in the Clowns," I know there were others but now I am blanking)..., Rodgers & Hammerstein, some American Songbook classics, some what I assume was Yiddish. He made us all stand up and do the hokey pokey whilst he sang along (in Yiddish!) which was actually very much fun. He talked about politics, sex, and religion, adding that the world is awfully screwed up because of these three things but, "Now we have Obama, and it's gonna be okay." He's a performer, a big ham, and the voice was strong and solid and unique as ever.
At the end of the show, he said he'd sing "one more" and the crowd started tossing out requests. "Fuck it," he announced to his long time accompanist, "It's been microphone hell night, let's give them what they want!" and he launched into a pretty long encore set that included "Oh What a Circus" from Evita (a request... I think... that prompted him to comment "That gentleman shouted out something about that show... about that bitch from Argentina..."), "Bring Him Home" from Les Miz, and oh, a few others. It was a lovely fun evening, and I am glad I decided last Monday to buy these tickets!! After the show, we sloshed home again, only to find that our basement had flooded. But that's another story...
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