What Happened When Mandy Patinkin Watched Jake Gyllenhaal Perform the Role He Originated? | Playbill

Broadway News What Happened When Mandy Patinkin Watched Jake Gyllenhaal Perform the Role He Originated? Gyllenhaal shares what happened to him onstage the day the original George came to see Sunday in the Park With George.

On the March 23 broadcast of Late Night with Seth Meyers, star of Broadway’s Sunday in the Park with George, Jake Gyllenhaal, took the hot seat to talk about his work on Broadway and his upcoming film, Life.

Gyllenhaal’s co-star, Annaleigh Ashford, visited Meyers a few weeks ago. Apparently, she always talks about the openness of her heart chakra, much to Gyllenhaal’s chagrin.

“I was in the middle of that show—and the second act of that show is extremely emotional—and in the second half of the show I was like, ‘My heart chakra is way open,’” he said. “It's this overwhelming feeling... I came offstage and someone [said that] Mandy Patinkin was in the audience.

“I was like Mandy opened my heart chakra!” said the singing actor. Gyllenhaal called the visit from Patinkin “one of the proudest moments of my career.” “He came backstage and we cried together, me and Annaleigh and him,” he recalled. (Watch the video above to hear what Patinkin said about Gyllenhaal’s performance.)

Patinkin created the role of George in the world premiere of the Stephen Sondeim-James Lapine musical, originally co-starring Bernadette Peters. Now, Gyllenhaal and Ashford bring the show back to Broadway—reopening the Hudson Theatre along the way—to tell the story of painter Georges Seurat and the people in his famous impressionist masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

Best known for his film acting, Gyllenhaal reveals he was an adamant show choir competitor in high school:

 
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