Brian Stokes Mitchell
Plays with Music—Holiday!
Feinstein’s/54Below, NYC, November 15, 2019
Reviewed by Marilyn Lester for Cabaret Scenes
If there is a Mr. Rogers of the cabaret stage, most certainly it’s Brian Stokes Mitchell. There’s no red sweater (a casual grey suit instead), but there are plenty of smiles, an air of embracing bonhomie, soothing geniality, and the homey feeling that the singer must be the nicest, kindest man in show business. With Plays with Music—Holiday! Mitchell was in especially fine form, celebrating not only the season, but also the release of his album Plays with Music, November 29. This was an enterprise three years in the making and cause for unabashed rejoicing. This outing at Feinstein’s/54 Below showcased all but three tracks on the 11-track CD. The opening number of both album and show was, appropriately, a high-energy “There’s No Business Like Show Business” (Irving Berlin), a love song to “the business” that had an eager audience pumped for a grand show ahead.
Mitchell, of course, didn’t disappoint. “Plays with Music” is a double entendre: musical theater, the field in which he works and earned his two Tony Awards, is about stage plays that of course have music added. He also makes a song come alive by playing with it.
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With “You’re a Mean One Mr.
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Grinch” (Albert Hague/Theodore Geisel) he mugged, gesticulated, and otherwise animated the piece, seeming to love every minute of his antics.
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With “New Words” (Maury Yeston) his theatrical delivery was easily convincing of a new father speaking to his infant child. Speaking of gesticulating, Mitchell’s precisely delivered “Gesticulate” (Robert Wright/George Forrest) surely had the ghost of leading man Alfred Drake, whose song it was in Kismet, offering positive gesticulations from the beyond.
The charismatic Mitchell can sell just about any emotion on the table. His versatility and ability to jump into a role or lyric and deliver the goods is nonpareil. He’s also darn funny. Dropping into a low baritone, he intoned “If Ever I Would Leave You” (Alan Jay Lerner/Frederick Lowe), racing around the stage serenading various women in the audience. The tongue twister “Getting Married Today” (Stephen Sondheim), with Mitchell playing several parts, was amazingly breathtaking. There was poignancy too in this beautifully paced and eclectic show. He brought to life a number cut from Assassins, “Flag Song” (Sondheim), an elegant, tuneful, and stirring invitation to patriotism. With “Wizard Every Day” (Liz Suggs/Nikko Benson) Mitchell demonstrated why, if he approaches his material as a one-act play with beginning, middle and end, this particular work is a three-act play. His rendition of the story song was purely magnificent. Mitchell reached deep into its core, offering the song with deeply touching authenticity and perfect timing. Playing out with bravura, as he came in, Mitchell offered another epic Broadway number, Ragtime’s “Wheels of a Dream” (Lynn Ahrens/Stephen Flaherty).
Mitchell was accompanied by a first-rate band, led by the super-accomplished pianist and music director, Joseph Thalken. Gary Haase ably handled bass (guitar and upright) and Clint DeGanon played drums with intuitive sensitivity.
