MANDY PATINKIN Mr. Versatility

Patinkin hinted at the possibility of a surprise guest showing up for his Saturday night concert.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Music brings Mandy Patinkin to Edward W. Powers Auditorium in Youngstown this weekend. No one is more surprised by this than Patinkin, who hadn't anticipated the multifaceted career he enjoys today in theater, film, television and concert halls.
"I only thought of wanting to be an actor," Patinkin said, calling recently from the airport in West Palm Beach, Fla. on his way home to New York. Music wasn't part of his initial pursuits because "Singing was something I always did in the temple, in the boys choir ... I wanted to do something that was a challenge."
As Patinkin honed the acting skills he learned at the Juilliard School, the musical pieces of his life's puzzle were falling into place anyway. He worked for the late Joseph Papp at the New York Shakespeare Festival, then earned a Tony Award in 1980 for his Broadway debut as Che the revolutionary in the musical "Evita."
'Other world'
"That whole thing opened up this other world," Patinkin said. "I'd avoided it for a long time."
Finally, in 1989 -- while he was on Broadway in "Winters Tale" with Christopher Reeve -- Patinkin released his first solo album and performed his first one-man show, with Papp's encouragement. The concert took place at Papp's Public Theater in New York. His memories of that evening: "I loved it," he simply said. He also recalled Papp telling him after the show that he should continue to sing but keep up with classical theater as well.
In reality, theater took a back seat to everything for more than a decade. When Patinkin wasn't filming movies such as "Dick Tracy" or episodes of TV's "Chicago Hope," he was on one of his concert tours that saluted composer Stephen Sondheim or paid homage to Yiddish music. It was just two months ago that Patinkin returned to theater as star of a production of Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People" at Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts.
It seems Patinkin is more than adept at everything he tries. "If lovers of musical theater had their way they would keep Mr. Patinkin on Broadway, where his astonishing gifts as a singer and actor have found ideal outlets," Anthony Tommasini wrote in The New York Times.
Pops show
Patinkin has about seven hours of material from which to cull his concerts. He'll perform his Pops show here. "That's our most popular piece," he said. He and pianist Paul Ford will cover what he calls a "smorgasbord" of music.
"In Youngstown, there may be a surprise guest," Patinkin noted. Who? Male or female? Patinkin wouldn't say. "It's someone I started singing a couple songs with. It's a big thrill for me ... [but] I can't guarantee it."
Patinkin is less mysterious on how he feels about his part in the Showtime cable TV series "Dead Like Me," which just completed its first season and was quickly renewed. It's a dark comedy about a young woman who joins the ranks of the undead -- people who have died but remain on Earth because of unresolved issues. Their job is to be grim reapers while trying to discover a love for life. Patinkin's role is that of leader of the grim reapers.
He may have earned an Emmy for portraying Dr. Jeffrey Geiger on "Chicago Hope," but "Dead Like Me" is "a lot more life friendly," he said, "because instead of doing 24 or 32 episodes, you're only doing 15. It's much saner." The shorter schedule also benefits the writers because they have more time to prepare or refine episodes.
"It's not such a factory where you have to come out with so much ... the level of compromise is far less in cable than in network," he said.
"Dead Like Me" proposes that life after death is really a wake-up call to take responsibility for our lives. Asked if there's an anti-suicide angle to the story line, "That's certainly one of the messages," he replied. Others are "anti-worry" and "anti-waste ... We're only here for a few minutes; don't waste a millisecond.
"What I love about the piece is it's first and foremost entertainment. The deaths are irreverent and tongue in cheek sometimes. ... Then you walk through the looking glass and you see on the other side hopefully what you'll embrace on this side of the looking glass. Smell the roses ... and have fun."
His personal life
Patinkin smells the flowers by spending as much time as possible with his wife and their two sons, who are entering young adulthood, and by tinkering with his O-gauge model train collection, which he began as a boy. "I spent years fantasizing about making plans on the layout ... That's how I would get through being away [from family] for months and years."
It wasn't until about 13 years ago -- roughly the same time he made his solo musical debut -- that he says he began "intensely working on this dream layout," which is reported to include more than 1,500 feet of track, 10,000 feet of wiring, lights, music and an imaginary town with businesses that he's named after family members.
"We've fairly completed the initial dream," Patinkin said. "Now we're waiting for grandchildren to come in and start dickering with their dreams, redoing and tearing things up."
Sounds like another career in the making.
shaulis@vindy.com