Tony winner and now TikTok star Mandy Patinkin and family come to NJ for laughs and music

Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody will be spending Valentine’s Day in Princeton, and we’re all invited to join them.

Patinkin, the Tony- and Emmy-winning actor and singer, and Grody, a two-time Drama Desk Award-nominated actress, have been married for more than 40 years. They will share stories from their life together at McCarter Theater on Tuesday, Feb. 14.

The New York couple found a new generation of shared fame in recent years, with more than 300,000 followers on both Twitter and Instagram, and a staggering 2 million followers on TikTok, where they can be seen discussing everything from soup to quantum computing to parenting — and that’s just from some of their posts in the last week or so.

Their on-stage conversation, like their social media presence, will be moderated by their son, Gideon Grody-Patinkin.

“When Gideon pulls out the phone and asks us some questions or he has some games that he wants to play with us or he’s been thinking of things ... we don’t do anything," Patinkin said. "... All we do is answer his questions. So, it’s all him, and we’re just the goofy parents.”

Patinkin, who’d already used his online presence to draw attention to causes such as the International Rescue Committee’s work with refugees, began collaborating with Grody and their son during the early days of COVID. Gideon came to visit his parents at their upstate New York home, took out his phone, and started filming — then posting.

“He puts this thing out there and all of a sudden the whole world is looking at this," Patinkin said. "And he nurtures it and we end up having this extraordinary platform.”

Eventually Patinkin and Grody began using their social media profile to advocate for issues, including voter registration, while delivering a bit of kitchen-table levity into viewers’ feeds.

“We realized that because of our son Gideon, his two crazy parents are making people have a bit of a laugh or a giggle during a very frightening time for all of us all over the world,” Patinkin said.

‘Being Alive’

Across his decades on stage and screen, Patinkin has inhabited a number of roles that would have been career-defining on nearly anyone else’s resume. He was the vengeful swordsman Inigo Montoya in Rob Reiner’s “The Princess Bride” (1987), won an Emmy in 1995 for his work on “Chicago Hope,” and starred in the series “Criminal Minds,” “Homeland” and “Dead Like Me.”

Patinkin won a Tony in 1980 for his work as Che in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Evita,” and was nominated for another in 1984 for Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George.”

His last touring show, “Diaries,” launched in 2018.

“It had a little bit of a dark edge to say the least because there were a lot of dark things going on at that time,” he said.

Two and a half years after the pandemic lockdown, Patinkin was ready to get back on stage.

“I said, ... 'I need to make a happy show,’ ” Patinkin said. “I want it to be fun. ... I need to get out there and feel alive again. And I think other people need it, too. And I think we all just need a break from all of this stuff that we’ve been dodge-balling all over the world.”

Patinkin and accompanist Adam Ben-David went through more than 13 hours’ worth of material in the singer’s repetorie and distilled it down to a 90-minute show: “Being Alive,” which plays Tarrytown Music Hall in Tarrytown, N.Y., on Saturday, Feb. 11, and the Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway on Saturday, Feb. 18.

On his most recent album, 2019’s “Children and Art,” Patinkin covered work by writers including Rufus Wainwright (“Going to a Town”), Tom Waits (“Kentucky Avenue”), Lyle Lovett (“If I Had a Boat”) and Randy Newman (“Wandering Boy”). But he’s not spoiling what audiences can expect from “Being Alive.”

“You may know the song, or some people may have heard it before, or never heard it before ...,” Patinkin said. “I am just the mailman for these great, gifted writers.”

The show shares a title with an iconic Sondheim number from the composer’s “Company,” which Patinkin recorded for his 1990 “Dress Casual” album.

“Ironically, there’s only one Sondheim song (in ‘Being Alive’), but I would never not at least have one,” Patinkin said. “It’s a very eclectic group of songs that I enjoy, but there’s one Sondheim song. I deeply love it.”

Patinkin’s history with Sondheim, who died in 2021, also includes the 1990 film “Dick Tracy,” which Patinkin appeared in and Sondheim wrote songs for; the Broadway production “Celebrating Sondheim”; and the album “Mandy Patinkin Sings Sondheim” in 2002.

“What I would write, if I could write, would be certainly what Stephen writes,” said Patinkin. “Because he’s all about turning the darkness into light. And if I had to define my wish for the world and for myself, it would be to turn any darkness into light whenever possible.

Go: An Evening with Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody, moderated by Gideon Grody-Patinkin, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14, Matthews Theater, McCarter Theater Center, 91 University Place, Princeton, $25 to $85; mccarter.org.

Go: “Mandy Patinkin in Concert: Being Alive,” 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, Union County Performing Arts Center, 1601 Irving St., Rahway, $59; ucpac.org.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Broadway film star Mandy Patinkin coming to Princeton, Rahway