From robinbg@ntplx.netMon Apr  1 01:48:50 1996
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 1995 21:37:35 +0000
From: Robin Blau Greenwald <robinbg@ntplx.net>
To: chicago.hope@TST-MedHat.com
Subject: HOPE: Mandy: My enchanted evening - part 2

        Hi everyone!
        I'm still smiling!  In fact, I got back from Mandy's Stamford, CT,
concert at 1:00 am this morning, and despite the fact that I knew I'd have
to get up at 5:15 for work, I hardly slept at all, I was so excited.
        Mandy was incredible!  No surprise there, of course.  The Philly
concert and the Prime Time House benefit I saw last spring were fabulous!
But I was kind of hoping that this wouldn't be exactly the same show
because I wanted to see him perform some songs I hadn't seen before, as
much as I loved seeing them in the spring.  And I'm thrilled to say that he
absolutely didn't disappoint (as if he could).
        The show started out the same as the spring concerts, with Mandy
entering, carrying two baskets of flowers, as Paul Ford did some
pre-Beat-Out rhythmic thumping on the piano.  Then he sang "Beat Out Dat
Rhythm on a Drum," all that much better this time because I know it so well
now from "Oscar and Steve."  He followed that up with "You Are Beautiful,"
then his little bit about worrying, "Is he just going to sit there?"  I'll
do the best I can on the order of these.  I believe the next one was "On
the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe."  He went to sit down for one of
his songs, I think it was "Atchison," and a bunch of people in the balcony
started yelling to him.  A whole bunch of people up there were yelling
something, and he had no idea what they were saying.  He finally told them
they had to pick one person to speak because he couldn't understand when
they all spoke at once.  Finally, someone up there got the message across
that they wanted him to move his chair farther back on the stage because
they couldn't see when he was close to the edge of the stage.  He said,
"Oh, you want me to move back," and he moved his chair farther back.  Being
in the second row, I preferred him closer to the front, but I didn't say
anything.  A few people off to the side of the orchestra yelled that now
they couldn't see, and he said, "Then you move back.  I'll tell you
what...if anyone up there can't see, you can come right down here."  No one
took him up on it, though.  Throughout the concert, he made jokes about
having to be behind an imaginary line, and once or twice when he did come
right up to the front, he realized that he was too far forward and jumped
back.  He even made a joke about having some kind of force field that would
sound a warning buzzer if he tried to cross the line.
        After he finished "Atchison," he stood up for the "Nya, nya,
nya..." bit that begins "You Could Drive a Person Crazy," but he stopped
when some people came in late to be seated a few rows behind me.  He made a
big deal out of it, saying, "Let me fill you in on what you missed.  As the
lights started to come up, Paul Ford was playing this [Paul started
thumping again] on the piano.  Then I came out carrying these two big
baskets of flowers.  And I got a big hand."  At this point, we all started
clapping again, and afterwards, he looked at the late people and said, "I
got a much bigger hand than that."  Everyone laughed.  He continued, "Then
I sang a song that was probably the greatest thing I've ever done in my
life.  Then I sang another song that was fantastic. Then these people told
me I had to move back so they could see.  Then you came in."  Later on,
someone else came in late, and he gave them this story:  "This has been the
most exciting night of my life.  Barbra Streisand stopped by, Frank Sinatra
came out for awhile.  Sorry you missed it.  I'm sorry."
        I was starting to wonder if it would be all the same songs he did
in the spring, but then he did a song I don't think I'd heard before, "The
Wrong Note Rag."  I didn't know this at the time, but someone on the
Sondheim list said he'd recently recorded it for a Bernstein album.  Then,
big, cool surprise, he did a breakneck rendition, in classic "Dress Casual"
style, of "Ya Got Trouble Right Here in River City"!  That's one I wasn't
expecting!:)  And he prefaced it by telling the audience that he wanted us
to join it at certain points, that we'd probably know when it came to our
part, and that we weren't supposed to sing his part.  He did "A Tisket, a
Tasket," "Sam, You Made the Pants Too Long," and "Cohen Owes Me $97."
After singing those last two, he said something like, "The first of those
two was written by Mr. Milton Berle.  The second was written by Irving
Berlin in 1918."  He motioned backstage for one of them to come out, I
can't remember which.  Then he said he wanted to do something more recent,
and he started up with "Honeybun."  He did his usual bit of calling up
people to lead "blond and curly," "hurly burly," and "pips," and the "hurly
burly" woman got so overwhelmed, she said she needed her husband up there
with her.  Naturally, Mandy invited her husband up, and the guy proceeded
to prepare for his task by taking off his jacket, rolling up his sleeves,
unbuttoning his collar, loosening his tie, and untucking his shirt.  As
Mandy went to put the guy's jacket behind the piano, he commented, "For a
minute there, I was afraid you were hearing your pants."
        Surprisingly, he didn't do "Frankfurter Sandwiches" or some of the
others I was expecting, and didn't do all the "Oscar and Steve" ones he'd
done before, notably "There Won't Be Trumpets," and my favorite, "Bali
H'ai."  He did do:  "Jitterbug Waltz"--which now that I think about it, may
have followed "The Wrong Note Rag";  "Me and My Shadow";  the "Casey"
medley;  "Good Thing Going" and "Taxi";  "Loving You" and "If I Loved You,"
which he prefaced by saying, "The first of these next two songs is by
Steve," to big applause, then, "The second is by Oscar," to more applause;
"When I Grow Too Old to Dream" and "Remember," which he prefaced with,
"This time it's Oscar, Steve.";   "An Ordinary Couple" and "When the
Children Are Asleep";   and I think he did "Always," which I hadn't seen
him do before.  I don't think he did "I Wish I Could Forget You," though I
was expecting it, but I may be wrong.  He ended the main part of the show
by summoning up all of his rage for "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught,"
then sitting down for an intimate "Children Will Listen," with the lights
eventually fading to a spotlight just on him, then ending with a blackout.
        He came back for a standing ovation and got Paul Ford out of his
seat for a bow.  Then he looked at a small piece of paper he'd taken out of
his pocket several times during the show.  It evidently listed all the
possible songs he might be singing, and he went to point to something for
Paul to see, when someone in the audience yelled out, "My boy Bill!"  Mandy
asked disbelievingly, "Really?  My boy Bill?"  This was met by cheers and
applause.  Mandy said, "Well, we haven't practiced this in more than a
year, but I'm willing to give it a try."  More applause.  And so he did
"Soliloquy," and it was fabulous and flawless!  I might add, at this point,
that not once, throughout the entire night, did he forget the words to a
single song!  Here I was, ready to jump out of my seat at his slightest
hesitation to shout out lyrics, and he didn't miss a single one.  Which
leads me to wonder, was the forgetting of lyrics thing--which I saw in both
Philly and Norfalk, CT,  and which I know others saw at other
concerts--part of the act in the spring, a part he decided to ditch for
this series of shows, or was/is it something he honestly struggles with
some nights and not others?  It seems he never forgot the same lyrics
twice, and what makes me wonder even more is that at the Norfalk, CT,
concert--which was a benefit that his wife and kids attended and
participated in--he was sitting at the edge of the stage, intimate and
serious, beginning his final encore, "Experiment," when he forgot the words
(and after biting my tongue for a reasonable amount of time waiting for him
to remember on his own, I jubilantly came to his aid;).  I could see
forgetting lyrics somewhere in the middle of the show as part of the act,
but that final number is the most intimate part of the show, and doesn't
strike me as something he would purposely disturb by forgetting the words.
Anyway, enough ruminating, though I'm interested in what others think of
this.
        He finished "Soliloquy" to another standing ovation, then went into
"Oh, What a Circus."  He was met with another standing ovation and really
seemed overwhelmed.  He said, "Okay, just two more."  He consulted his list
again and pointed to a song for Paul, then said, "Or this one...Oh, okay,
I'll do both, and then..." he indicated the final song to Paul.  So, he
ended up doing both "Not a Day Goes By" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
He finished up with his fifth and final encore, "Experiment," with the same
dimming of the lights and fading to an eventual blackout.
        As the audience filed out of the theatre, my friend Marianne and I
met up again with BetsiI(from aol) and her daughter Jennie, having had
dinner with them at a nearby Italian restaurant and having planned to make
it backstage as a group.  We all had gifts or something special to say to
Mandy, and Betsi and Jennie had made up wonderful white T-shirts with black
lettering that said, "MANDY PATINKIN Internet Fan Club," which the three of
us were wearing.  I approached an usher and asked, "Could you please tell
me where Mandy will be meeting fans after the show?"  He directed us to go
out exit 10 then go to the left.  We did so and ended up behind 15 or so
people in a narrow and very dark alley.  After a few minutes, a guy came
out to announce that Mandy was visiting with some people backstage, but
that he would eventually see us, and that we'd be ushered in 10 to 15 at a
time.  Meanwhile, I'd met up with Richard and Barbara, fans that we'd sat
with for dinner at the Prime Time House benefit, and also with a woman
named Colleen who was new to the internet and was interested, as was
Richard, in joining the Chicago Hope and Mandy Patinkin mailing lists.
After about 10 minutes, they let the first 15 or so people in, and at one
point while the rest of us were waiting, Paul Ford leaned out a window
above us, and evidently reported to Mandy that there weren't too many more
and that it was very dark in the alley.  Then Mandy came to the door,
peaked out, and said, "Yeah, it is dark out there."  He looked down to the
end of the alley and said, "Is that all?  Ah, bring 'em all in."  I'd say
at that point there were maybe 20 to 30 people.
        So we all went in, and a few people got pictures and autographs.
Then Jennie approached Mandy with her masterpiece, a Mandy Patinkin doll,
designed by her and her mom.  They'd bought a Jesse doll from the Full
House collection, dressed him in black pants, a black T-shirt, and
silver/gray sneakers on which Jennie had painted NB for New Balance, tucked
into the waist a doll-sized piece of sheet music with "Oscar and Steve"
written across the top, and painted a wedding ring on his left ring finger!
It really did look quite a bit like him.  Jennie pointed out all the
finer details of the doll to Mandy, and he asked, "Did you make this
yourself?!"  She answered that she had, and he obviously liked it a lot
because he asked his assistant (Gail?) to keep it to put on "the shelf,"
evidently a shelf for special fan gifts.
        Next, Betsi approached him with a T-shirt she'd made for him, along
the same lines as the ones we had on, only his was black, said, "Palace
Theatre, Nov. 21, 1995" on the front, and had our email addresses on the
back, hers, Jennie's, and mine.  She pointed out the email addresses to
him, and he said, "That sure is a long address!"  She explained that it was
three addresses.  Then she gave him a tin containing her famous Mandelbread
with a label that said, "Mandel for Mandy!  Happy Birthday!" and a few
other things.  He seemed thrilled with the idea and exclaimed, "My namesake
cookie!!"
        Then I went up to him with a birthday card I had bought for him
shortly after the concert last June.  It had a woman holding a frankfurter
on the front, and it said, "Birthdays are like wieners..."  Then inside it
said, "Well, not really--but I find that there aren't nearly enough
birthday cards that say wiener.  Wiener.  Wiener.  Wiener."  It had
reminded me of "Frankfurter Sandwiches."  So I approached him with the
card, which Marianne, Betsi, Jennie, and I had signed, and told him that it
had made me think of "Frankfurter Sandwiches."  He looked at it and thanked
me.
        Then I took out the 8x10 blowup of the picture of Mandy and me that
my husband had taken after the Norfalk concert, and asked him if he would
sign it.  As he was looking at it, I said, "Mandy, when I met you there, I
had given you a song I wrote for you called 'Don't Call Geiger Crazy,' and
I was wondering if you had gotten a chance to read it."  Here's the part I
LOVE!  His face absolutely LIT UP with recognition, and he sucked in his
breath excitedly and enthused, "Yes!  I read that!  That was great!"  I
nearly burst, I was so thrilled!  Then he said, "We still have that, you
know.  It's in our book.  We have this book..."  I'm assuming it's some
kind of a scrapbook of special fan writings and/or pictures.  And my song
is in it!!!:)  He looked at the picture again and asked, "Who should I make
this out to?"  And I said, "Robin," and he wrote, "To Robin--[heart] Mandy
Patinkin."  I got a heart!!!!!:)  Like I said, I'm still smiling!
        As he was signing, I said, "Mandy, when my 19-month-old daughter
saw the cover to "Oscar and Steve," she pointed and said, 'Mandy 'tinkin!'"
He and Josh and everyone seemed to get a big kick out of that.  Then I
continued, "And so I said to her, 'And what does Mandy Patinkin say?' and
she goes, [I balled up my fist to demonstrate] 'YEEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!'"  And
everyone thought that was really funny.
        He gave me back the picture, and as I was walking away, Marianne
called my attention to the fact that I was still clutching my camera and
that she hadn't been able to take a picture.  So I said apologetically,
"Mandy, I'm sorry, but do you think I could have a picture, please?"  And
so he posed with his arm around me.
        Then Marianne approached him, telling him how thrilled she was to
meet Dr. Geiger, and got her program signed.  I took a picture of her with
his arm around her too.
        We waited and listened in while he met with everyone else,
including Richard, Barbara, and Colleen.  At one point, we overheard him
say that Geiger would be on the 12th or 13th episode of Chicago Hope.
"Really?" I asked, thrilled.  "The 12th or 13th episode?"  He answered yes,
the 12th or 13th--he couldn't remember which--as well as at the end of the
season.  We waited until he had met with everyone and Josh walked him into
another room.
        After that, we walked through the hall and back to the stage and
the theatre so we could use the rest room, and there was Paul Ford, sitting
on-stage at the piano!  So Jenny got his autograph and a picture with him,
and Marianne, who plays the piano too, talked to him about the piano he
plays and also got a picture.  I posed with him too, and I think Betsi
might have also.
        When we left the theatre, we spotted a Lexus with a chauffeur
standing next to it and debated hanging around to see if Mandy would get
into it, but we decided to give the guy a break and leave him alone.  He'd
been so gracious about meeting everyone and listening to us all effervesce
about how much we adore him, we didn't want him to think we were stalking
him or something.  So we all went back to the parking lot together and were
on our way.
        As Marianne and I were driving home, we spotted a Lexus with two
men in the backseat!  We practically got ourselves killed zigzagging in and
out of traffic to catch up to it, because looking from the back, it really
looked like Paul Ford was in there.  Alas, when we finally caught up to it,
there was no Mandy and no Paul.  It was worth a shot, though!;)
        Well, it's taken me a week to finish writing this, and know what?
I'm still smiling!:)