Brian Stokes Mitchell's New Nightclub Act - A Report From the Road

Brian Stokes Mitchell was supposed to give a preview performance of his new cabaret Songs I Wanna Sing... on Long Island on Saturday, three days before he debuts the show at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency in Manhattan. A little something called the presidential election got in the way.

“I had actually planned to do an entirely new show,” Mitchell told the audience in the Landmark on Main Street’s Jeanne Rimsky Theater. But after the historic election of Barack Obama, “there’s some songs I want to revisit, because they have meaning afresh now,” he said.

Then he sang “The Best Is Yet to Come” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade”—and proceeded to demonstrate that he’d be the perfect person to sing the new president into office (are you reading this, inauguration planners?). The final segment of his 70-minute concert in particular would make an ideal entertainment component for January 20: “America the Beautiful,” “Wheels of a Dream” (from Ragtime), “What a Wonderful World” and “The Impossible Dream.”

“This is about celebrating and about a new spirit of hope and optimism in the country,” Stokes said during the concert, which was part of Spotlight Gala ’08, the 14th annual benefit for the Landmark cultural center in Port Washington. Obama’s victory, he added, “is such an extraordinary experience for all of us.”

The Tony winner, who’s a president himself (of the Actors Fund), made sure he had the audience on his side politically before introducing his celebratory theme, saying he didn’t want to cause any Republican loyalists “too much pain.” (Port Washington voted 63% for Obama.) He talked about taking his 4-year-old son with him to vote—the little boy went into the booth with Stokes’ wife as well and later bragged that he “voted...twice!” Stokes also mentioned that he briefly met Barack Obama at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which he attended as a guest of Ted Kennedy. After Obama stopped by Kennedy’s box in the convention hall, the Massachusetts senator turned to Stokes and announced: “That’s going to be the first black president.”

“It’s so fascinating to see all the things that just lined up in the universe,” Stokes said on the Landmark stage. “It’s like the universe said, ‘It’s time for this guy to be president.’ But the most incredible thing is that the fact that he’s a black president is very small; it’s so much bigger than that, to see how the world has responded.”

Reflecting on his breakthrough role in Ragtime, Stokes alluded to the fate of his character Coalhouse Walker and real African-Americans a hundred years ago, when Ragtime takes place. Both Coalhouse and his wife, Sarah, lose their lives because of racism. “It’s incredible to see where we have ended up now, and I’m so full of hope, joy and optimism,” he said. “Even with all the other stuff that’s going on, it feels like: Here’s the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Stokes’ show wasn’t all politics. He got romantic with “It Amazes Me,” had fun with “Kee-Mo Ky-Mo” and “A-Tisket A-Tasket” and gave us a taste of bossa nova with “One Note Samba.” And in a “crazy” medley, his accompanist Gerard D’Angelo began playing “Losing My Mind” (which Stokes had recorded on his debut album) but Stokes then sang “Twisted.”

Prior to the performance, awards were presented to Landmark supporters Nancy Federlein, Joseph Labenson and Anne and Vincent Mai. The gala, which was hosted by best-selling author and Long Islander Susan Isaacs (Compromising Positions, Shining Through), raised more than $200,000 for Landmark; check its website for upcoming programming.

Brian Stokes Mitchell, who’d previously performed at Landmark in the spring of 2006, is doing seven shows of Songs I Wanna Sing... this week at Feinstein’s, beginning on Tuesday, November 11. For more about the Upper East Side cabaret, click here.

Brian Stokes Mitchell opened with “Some Enchanted Evening.” Guests received the DVD of the Carnegie Hall South Pacific, in which Stokes played Emile de Becque, in their gift bags. 

The director of Stokes’ 2007 Carnegie Hall concert introduced him to “It Amazes Me,” by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh. “I think it’s one of their prettiest tunes,” said Stokes, who also sang Coleman and Leigh’s “The Best Is Yet to Come” (which is on his album).

Stokes plucked two titles from Barbra Streisand’s songbook: “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?”

“One Note Samba” was a tribute to Brazilian jazz and its No. 1 exporter, Antonio Carlos Jobim.

The four-time Tony nominee did a stirring rendition of “I Was Here” by Ragtime songwriters Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.

His young son, Ellington, inspired him to sing “New Words,” composed by Maury Yeston.

Stokes had the audience join in on the nonsense refrain of “Kee-Mo Ky-Mo,” a 19th-century ditty that Nat King Cole updated. 

The audience was anticipating a song from Ragtime right after Stokes talked about that show and how revelatory it had been for both whites and blacks—but first he sang “America the Beautiful.”

“What a Wonderful World” and “The Impossible Dream” constituted Stokes’ encore.

Stokes has been singing “The Impossible Dream” in every performance since he played Don Quixote on Broadway in 2003, but lyrics like “And the world will be better for this” have a new meaning to him and his audience since the election.

All photos by Adrienne Onofri.