Afternoon Greg: LuPone and Patinkin at Ahmanson is a match made in musical theater heaven

What a busy blogging day!

But I’ve got to wrap things up to head over to the Los Angeles Film Festival where I have an ambitious slate of three films to take in. We’ll see if I can do it!

But first I did want to write about the wonderful time I had last night at the Ahmanson Theatre for An Evening With Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin. It was amazing from the moment these two giants of musical theater, who starred together in Evita 30 years ago, walked onto the stage.

They work together so seamlessly as they glide their way through two acts of numbers from such classic musicals as South Pacific, Carousel, Merrily We Roll Along, and Company. It’s one thing to have a big voice – and these performers have huge pipes – but they are also superb actors and take us through a wonderful journey.

There’s a part of you that wants LuPone to do a medley of her many well-known songs from her hit shows like Gypsy, Anything Goes,  Sweeney Todd, and Sunset Boulevard among many others. But that’s for her one-woman show. Here she is an entirely different thing. Still, the audience excitement was palpable as Miss LuPone closed the first act with a first-rate Don’t Cry for Me Argentina from Evita. Then, early in the second act, she did Everything’s Coming Up Roses from Gypsy.

Heaven.

So many familiar songs done expertly by this duo with my favorites being Getting Married Today from Company, Baby It’s Cold Outside from Neptune’s Daughter, If I Loved You from Carousel. It was a pity that they only do a small portion of You’ll Never Walk Alone from Carousel but hey, you can’t have it all.

My advice is this: If you are a musical theater fan, this is a rare opportunity to see two of the best in the business still at the peak of their considerable powers. LuPone and Patinkin are only in town for eight performances with their run at the Ahmanson ending Monday night. Click HERE for ticket info.

Do not miss it!