So where exactly are we, as a culture and a civilization? Well, it’s an incredibly mixed up moment – maybe even more than most. We’re not exactly still in the pandemic, but we’re far from fully out of it. Liberty and democracy are lately under siege from both within and without, news of mass shootings arrives as regularly as streaming episodes of our favorite series, and just when we had essentially stopped worrying about the threat from the East, all of a sudden we seem to be at the starting point of a brand new Cold War. (I find myself quoting Paul Lynde as “Harry MacAfee” in Bye Bye Birdie: “How are we going to beat the Russians?”)
Perhaps the most amazing thing about Brian Stokes Mitchell is that he makes you feel that we are living in an amazing moment, a time when it’s great to be alive, and even more so to be in the audience at Feinstein’s/54 Below. On Monday, he opened a week at “Broadway’s Supper Club” as part of what they call their “Diamond Series,” which seems to mean something more like a concert: usually 54 features two or even three shows in a night, which start promptly and, out of necessity, rarely go beyond 70 minutes. In this series, however, there’s only one show per eve, and Mr. Mitchell went well over 90 minutes – even then it hardly seemed like enough.
We rarely think of Broadway stars like Mr. Mitchell as being up on the art of improvisation; that’s really the province of jazz artists like Ella Fitzgerald or Mel Torme, right? But even as those jazz icons were incredibly well prepared, Mr. Mitchell and his collaborator, musical director Tedd Firth are versed in the art of spontaneity – or at least instilling the feeling of it. As I know from having been backstage with Tony Bennett on his “By Request” TV shows, when a well-known singer like Mr. Bennett or Mr. Mitchell calls for requests, they quickly get asked to sing something already in their regular repertoire – i.e., no one was demanding that Brian Stokes Mitchell sing “Polka Dot Bikini.”
One of the more amazing set-pieces that Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Firth have come up with is a collage of “Another Hundred People” and “Take the A Train.” Somehow they have contrived to exact incredible joy from the idea of subway-ing around New York – which, at any point in the city’s history, is rarely depicted as the most pleasurable of experiences. The Company show tune is both a celebration and a gripe at the same time in a classically Sondheim-ian way, New York may be dingy and dirty but still we wouldn’t change it for a sack of gold, and by merging it with Billy Strayhorn’s theme for Duke Ellington, they blend both songs into a construct that resonates as pure euphoria.
Exercising his jazz chops – Mr. Mitchell is such a fan that he named his son “Ellington” and his record label “Ellingtones” – the singer returned to the Duke-Billy songbook with “Satin Doll,” reconfigured for a tap-dancing style drum solo by percussionist Mark McLean. (Not only that, his “A Train” quotes from the rare lyric by the Delta Rhythm Boys, which is not part of standard interpretations of the Ellington theme song.) He also made “I’m Beginning to See the Light” the centerpiece of his “1940s Medley” – alongside “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” and “Embraceable You” (both written earlier but frequently heard during the war years).
Mr. Mitchell dedicates that medley to his late father, a decorated veteran of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen. Another highly personal number is “New Words,” a beautiful story song that might as well have been written directly for Brian and Ellington Mitchell by Maury Yeston. In addition to the jazz numbers (there’s also Cole Porter’s “Love For Sale” against a countermelody that sounded like Donald Byrd’s “Tanya Jean”) and highly personal numbers inspired by his family, Mr. Mitchell didn’t disappoint anybody who came to hear his signature Broadway baritone showcases: “So In Love,” “Some Enchanted Evening,” “Wheels of a Dream,” and “The Impossible Dream.” The latter, famously, is the song that made him a local New York and youtube hero when he sang it out of his window, high atop Broadway on the upper West Side, during the darkest days of the lockdown.
He finished with “What a Wonderful World,” enhanced by his own solo on the melodica, a keyboard-wind hybrid instrument generally introduced to popular music by Nat King Cole (and championed more recently by such royal subjects of The King as Monty Alexander and Jonathan Batiste). This 1969 Louis Armstrong hit is often heard as an encore these days, but often it has a forced quality to it – like the singer is trying to convince himself as much as the audience that the words are true. Not so with Mr. Mitchell, whose message of optimism and hope is more than palpable. Indeed, as I alighted the stairs and bounded onto Broadway, I fully expected to see a sailor smooching with a nurse.
Brian Stokes Mitchell: Songs and Stories opened June 21, 2022 at Feinstein’s/54 Below and runs through June 25. Tickets and information: 54below.com
