Music Reviews

Jul 16, 2008 - With a vast virtuosity, Mandy Patinkin sings in Reno for Reno's Artown Festival

By Jack Neal

The phenomenal singing actor Mandy Patinkin brought his one-man show to Reno’s Artown Festival Tuesday night (7/15/08) at Reno’s Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts.

This exceptionally gifted artist has triumphed in virtually all entertainment genres, but is most celebrated for being a Tony Award winner and genuine Broadway star. Sharing the stage with Patinkin was pianist Paul Ford, one of the best collaborators in the business. One cannot call what Ford does so brilliantly accompanying. He was glued to every nuance, twitch and hesitation that emanated from the very mobile and lyric star with whom he shared the stage. And that allowed Patinkin something akin to complete artistic freedom.

In this most political of years, when one wants to warm to one’s candidate of choice but finds the warming difficult, I found it difficult to warm to Patinkin’s very special talent. Judging from the number of standing ovations, few others in the large (950) audience (the theater seats 1450) seemed to have any such reluctance.

His sound system was a major setback, drawing a veil of reverberation between singer and audience that made connecting the two a sometime thing. The other major drawback was the immense talent the star was inclined to show off at every nook-and-cranny of melody and lyric his many songs (about two dozen) had in abundance. For a performer who claims more obedience to lyrics than any other aspect of singing, it was a strange - and the ultimate - anchor that prevented the concert from soaring to memorable heights.

In fairness, Patinkin – as he told us – was suffering from a bit of a cold. Nonetheless, with a splendidly liquid voice, a wonderfully robust sound, a presence of undeniable power, an amplification system of momentous echoing (the Pioneer Center became a cathedral more suitable for the mystic smear of Gregorian Chant than the precision of audible lyrics), Patinkin played to effect for a presentation of curious affectation. The low range would growl, the high range would ride on the wings of exceptional breath control, the middle range would punctuate with a belting quality that’s enviable, when belting is called for. But there’s a wobble, now, where a vibrato once enhanced, and wobbles disrupt melodic lines and distress lyrics.

There were wonderful moments to be sure, but most of the big, big moments were too lacking in heart to thrill. Much of the program was on the edge of being terrific – the haunting Valjean prayer “Bring Him Home” from “Les Miserables,” a profound “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught” from “South Pacific,” a rousing “Oklahoma” from “Oklahoma” – to name but a few. Sadly, “Rock-a-bye your baby with Dixie melody,” and “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe” evoked memories of Judy Garland without the thrill of a Garland rendition.

At its best, like Leonard Bernstein’s sumptuous “Make our garden grow” from “Candide,” Patinkin’s presentation showered hope on what has become an all too sad America and world.

Bless him for that.

He reminded listeners of FDR’s words in another time of despair: “There’s nothing to fear, but fear itself.” Then offered all of Prospero’s final soliloquy (partially quoted here) from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” which the actor will be doing soon in New York: “As you from crimes would pardoned be, Let your indulgence set me free.” And finally, there was “Pennies from Heaven” done quietly, simply, and from the heart. “If you want the things you love, you must have showers. So when you hear it thunder, don’t sit under a tree. There’ll be pennies from heaven for you and me.”

At their best, Mandy Patinkin and Paul Ford showered Tuesday’s audience with beautiful song and the optimism of Johnny Burke’s simple, wonderful words of hope.

For current Reno is Artown concerts and events and other events consult my master calendar on line at Nevada-Events.net or call 775-322-1538.