There is a simplicity to a concert with just Paul Ford on the piano, and he and Mandy work together in such a wonderful way. Mandy chooses his music because of the story each song tells. He puts songs together to enrich the story.

For a few years in the 90s, I traveled to meet up with many other internet fans and attend Mandy concerts. I went to concerts in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Akron, Chicago, and San Francisco, often my friends and I attended multiple concerts. Last month my youngest son, who lives in Rochester, New York, called and said that he and his wife had attended Mandy’s concert there. They said they enjoyed it a great deal, so I guess I’ve passed on my appreciation of Mandy Patinkin and his music to another generation.

I’m sorry you had a bad experience and that you didn’t enjoy the concert. I guess Mandy like Sondheim is an acquired taste and not for everyone.

We are season ticket holders at Strathmore and have been for 2 years now. Everyone has to go see something there. The acoustics put the Kennedy Center and any other place we’ve ever been to shame. Last year one of our shows was Rockapella and during their encore they said that because the place was so amazing they were going to try something. They shut off and removed their mics and sang and we could hear everything just fine. There were folks sitting in the box seats that circle around the back of the stage and one of the guys walked around facing them singing completely away from the rest of the audience and there was no change, you could hear every word! We really enjoy going there. It’s a fraction of the cost of places downtown and it’s relatively close by and the parking garage is designed so it’s easy to get in and out….all in all it’s a super venue.

The other thing I have to tell you is that Barbara Cook is going to be our headliner when we have our Grand Opening of the Workhouse Arts Center at Lorton in September. She’ll be there two nights. Our acoustics will not be amazing!

Patinkin also played Marvin in William Finn’s “Falsettos.” If the rundown had included the lovely “What More Can I Say,” you would still be hearing it.

I saw Patinkin’s program at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theatre when both he and Barbara Cook perfomed concerts to supplement the six-show Sondheim festival. I enjoyed the Patinkin performanc, but he is not in Barbara Cook’s league.

Barbara does sing Sondheim, (She and Patinkin were both in the concert version of “Follies.”) but she also sings the top of the American Songbook (except for Cole Porter). A couple of years ago, Barbara did a concert called, “Mostly Sondheim.” It included the songs Sondheim wished he had written, as well as the ones we are all glad he did.

If you want to give Sondheim another try, get Barbara Cook’s two-CD recording of “Mostly Sondheim.” After listening to this, go see the new Sweeney Todd movie and listen for “Joanna” and “Not While I’m Around.” (An even better experience would be watching the video of Angela Lansbury’s performance in the original stage version).

I get the absence of intermission. An hour and forty minutes is actually a long concert for a single artist. With an intermission, he could have had an opening act or “guests.”

I do not get the use of only a single piano. Almost anything sounds better adding a bass and maybe two more pieces.

I have not been to Strathmore, but you should continue to patronize this and similar venues. In September, I took my daughter and her fiance to see Barbara Cook at George Mason in Virginia. The house was intimate with good acoustics, and the price about half what it is at the Kennedy Center or Avery Fisher.

Let me conclude by saying that I do not blame you for not connecting with the material. It is up to the artist to draw the audience into it. Patinkin clearly did not do this for you. The best performer will draw the entire wattage of your attention to the emotional arc of a song. You will see what I mean, once you have seen Barbara Cook.

Also, Patinkin does not perform ‘personal’ songs. He does not write music. Nearly all of the music in this show was written by composers like Hammerstein, Sondheim, Guettel, etc.