Brian Stokes Mitchell Sings at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Sept. 15-17

By Andrew Gans
September 15, 2005

Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell joins the National Symphony Orchestra for a series of concerts at the famed Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. The evenings will include a selection of tunes from The Light in the Piazza.

NSO Pops: An Evening with Brian Stokes Mitchell will feature baritone Mitchell performing with the National Symphony Orchestra. Marvin Hamlisch, the Tony-winning composer of A Chorus Line, will conduct the orchestra. The concerts will also feature the Washington Symphonic Brass under the musical direction of Milton Stevens.

Concertgoers can expect to hear tunes by George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Henry Mancini, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens as well as selections from Adam Guettel's The Light in the Piazza. The program, according to the Kennedy Center website, follows.

Selections from Carousel (Rodgers)
Overture to South Pacific (Rodgers)
Symphonic Picture from Porgy and Bess (Gershwin)
Selections from The Light in the Piazza (Guettel)
"Soliloquy" from Carousel (Rodgers)
"Danza guerresca" from Belkis, Queen of Sheba (Respighi)
"Sing, Sing, Sing" (Prima)
"This Nearly Was Mine" from South Pacific (Rodgers)
"Impossible Dream" from Man of La Mancha (Leigh)
"Wheels of a Dream" from Ragtime (Flaherty)
"How Long Has This Been Going On?" from Rosalie (Gershwin)
"Whistling Away in the Dark" from Darling Lili (Mancini)
"A Woman Is a Sometime Thing" from Porgy and Bess (Gershwin)
"There's a Boat That's Leavin' Soon from New York" Porgy and Bess (Gershwin)

Brian Stokes Mitchell, who recently performed his concert Love/Life at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, earned a Tony nomination for his performance in the title role of Man of La Mancha. He won the 2000 Tony, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk awards for his performance as Fred Graham/Petruchio in Kiss Me, Kate, and his other Broadway credits include lead roles in King Hedley II; Ragtime; Kiss of the Spider Woman; Jelly's Last Jam; Oh, Kay!; Mail; and the City Center Encores! presentations of Do Re Mi and Carnival. Television audiences will be familiar with Mitchell's work from his roles on "Trapper John, M.D.," "Roots" and "Frasier." Mitchell was elected the twelfth president of the Actors' Fund of America, and he made his cabaret debut in February at Feinstein's at the Regency.

Tickets, priced $20-$80, are available by visiting www.kennedy center.org.