Photo courtesy Brian Stokes Mitchell
Brian Stokes Mitchell
Brian Stokes Mitchell
Brian Stokes Mitchell has a simple, but profound goal for his concerts. He wants people to be happier when they leave the venue than when they entered. And, as a bonus, to feel more connected with those around them.
That means that the Tony Award winner won’t be doing an evening of the Broadway shows with which he’s most associated, like Les Miserables, Man of La Mancha and Ragtime. Nor will the concert be all standards from the Great American Songbook or any other set musical program.
“It’s kind of a mix of a lot of different things,” Mitchell said. “It’s a show I’ve been doing for the last three, four, five months. I call it ‘Songs and Stories.’ I can sing what I want, say what I want, customize it for each city. I never do the same thing. The idea is to lift everybody. We’ve been in such sad, confusing and divisive times and being in the midst of a pandemic.”
What Comes Next?
In actuality, Stokes’ concert is somewhat inspired by both the COVID-19 pandemic and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.
“What I learned from the 1917 Spanish flu pandemic, what did it all go into? The Roaring ’20s,” he said. “My concert is, ‘We’re still here, what’s going to come next?’ It’s about finding our joy. There’s some Broadway, standards, new tunes that aren’t familiar, some world music. It’s all designed to make the audience and, honestly, me feel good. My goal is that all are happier, audience and artists, when we leave the theater than when we walked in.”
Mitchell’s concerts are also something of a follow-up to his headline-grabbing singing of “The Impossible Dream” out of the window of his Manhattan apartment to honor doctors, nurses and other health care workers during the pandemic.
“I was getting over COVID. I was one of the first people that had it,” Mitchell said. “The only other person I knew that had it was Terry McNally, the playwright, my friend, and he died from it. The only thing I had then was watching the news and seeing what was going on in China and Europe. I was watching a news report about the shutdown in Italy and specifically Venice. At night, they were opening their windows and singing to each other. I was really moved by what I saw. I only intended to do it once.”
Mitchell ended up singing it nightly during the workers shift change for two and a half months, joined by thousands of his fellow New Yorkers.
Broadway’s Last Leading Man
While Mitchell is best known today as one of “Broadway’s last leading man,” his 40-year-plus career has taken him through television, where he first appeared as a 20-year-old in the series “Trapper John, M.D.” to voiceover work in animation, film and concerts.
Asked if they’re all pieces of the same pie, he responded:
“For me, yes. In theater, I’ve been eating that particular piece in a certain part of my life,” he said. “Broadway, I don’t know if I’ll return ever. I started out in musical theater, people don’t know that. Then I went to TV, voiceovers, then Broadway for 20, no its 25 years, and after my son was born—he’s 19 now—I decided to go into the concert world. It’s about everything, performing, singing, improvising like you do in TV and film.”
Mitchell now has a recurring role on “East New York,” the CBS series that premiered in October; will be in a new Netflix film, Shirley, about Shirley Chisholm, and the first Black woman to run for president; and is again picking up voiceover work.
Uplift through Art
But his passion is for his concerts and the effort to unite and uplift people through art.
“I don’t think it’s an accident that any of us are here, living through this time,” Mitchell said. “We all have gifts we can bring to the world. For me, it’s about getting together again. We’ve been divided by a lot of people who it is in their interest to keep us divided.
“My goal is to bring people together,” he said. “No matter your political party, religion, anything that would divide us. We all have differences. But we can listen to each other, sit down with each other and enjoy a concert, a movie. It’s really the power of art has always been there to bring us together. I want to levitate people, all of us. That’s what the concerts are for.”
“An Evening with Brian Stokes Mitchell” and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra is at 7:30 p.m. on April 28 at Bradley Symphony Center. For tickets, visit mso.org/concerts/brian-stokes-mitchell/54118.
