Tickets from £20.00

It’s easy to become bloated with the savoury and saccharine delights on the stage right now; endlessly repetitive, though enjoyable, servings of immense shows with gooey gowns and glittering effects. But occasionally, something punctuates the noise with a reserved sense of authenticity, class, and showstopping storytelling. Folks, that something is the legendary Mandy Patinkin. The Emmy and Tony-winning actor/singer adapts his original concert performance to celebrate the liveness of an audience and his unwavering love of musical theatre.

The new concert production, staged at the Lyric Theatre until 19 November, could be regarded as a masterclass of stage control, theatre and performance. What Mandy Patinkin: Live in Concert is forcertain, is a communal evening of appreciation and love: of the industry, its history, and one another. It’s a once-in-a-generation master of his craft sharing the highs and lows of everything.

The smorgasbord of familiar tunes and ditties welcomes dab-hands and those dipping their toes into some of the more ‘nostalgic’ stage and screen classics. But from the opening medley, concluding with a pathos-infused Time in a Bottle to a thunderingly energetic and comedic If I Had a Boat by Lyell Lovett, there isn’t an element of the concert which doesn’t spark with delight. Even the ad-libs and breaks from the set routine are carried with sincere charm and showmanship. It’s welcoming, comforting, and for 90 minutes, removes audiences from their realities and into a wondrous realm.

Not alone, however, Patinkin shares the spotlight with pianist Adam Ben-David providing a tightly synchronised and pitch-perfect performance from the side of the stage. The pair’s idiosyncratic back and forth is delightful and refrains from being distracting. There’s this gloriously playful sense of ‘making it up as they go’, which far from the truth, makes for an easy-going night from the Broadway showman.

From a defiantly raw and personal rendition of My Mom into Carefully Taught/Children Will Listen the show is bookended with some of the late Sondheim’s greatest. It’s a magnificent demonstration that, for as much as Patinkin may jab at the lack of a writer for the concert, the song set is sublimely orchestrated and paced.

And who needs slide shows and projections when this much skill and legacy is present? But don’t think it’s been slapped together: the Lyric shines with a rich violaceous hue throughout the concert, occasionally ebbing into blackouts – the weight of many numbers benefitting from a miniature ‘finale’ to deliver the necessary impact. Equally, Patinkin toys with the space and incorporates humour and motion into the show as it dips into a more conversational manner with stories of his youth, encounters with Broadway legends Angela Lansbury, and Sondheim, and a welcome and British appreciation of the great Norman Wisdom.

But how on earth to deliver a finale to an audience so keenly ravenous for more? In a moment of brilliance, if harrowing, and painfully resonating, Patinkin chooses a song that remains in the minds of generations, one written by the son of Lithuania-Jewish refugees: Somewhere Over the Rainbow. The weight in Patinkin’s switch from English to Yiddish imparts such weight to Harold Arlen’s song, that there would be no finer way to conclude the evening.

They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Patinkin doesn’t recite; he softly pierces through the barrier of the stage to the audience and traverses the space alongside the lyrics and score. In a city crammed to bursting with musical theatre, visit the Lyric and witness the man who likely inspired most of those on the neighbouring stages today.