Mandy Patinkin to Star in New Play Compulsion, About Anne Frank's Diary

Tony winner Mandy Patinkin has signed on to star in Rinne Groff’s new play Compulsion at the Yale Repertory Theater, according to The New York Times. The play, which centers on a man obsessed with the diary of Anne Frank, will previews on January 29, 2010, and open on February 4, running through February 28. Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis will direct the New Haven production.

Compulsion is inspired by Meyer Levin, a journalist and screenwriter who helped publicize the existence of Anne Frank’s celebrated diary and later claimed that the chance to adapt it for the stage had been stolen from him. Patinkin’s character, Sid Silver, is based on Levin, who was among the first to visit the concentration camps after World War II as a war correspondent.

“Everything Anne Frank represents was extremely powerful to him,” Patinkin told the Times, “He went on this quest to try to purify what he felt her journey was all about.”

Compulsion was originally announced to run at Yale Rep in February, but the dates were changed to accommodate Patinkin’s concert dates with his Evita co-star Patti LuPone.