Simply Broadway

I greatly admire the simple. The haiku poem that smells of springtime The scant lines on paper that take you to Camelot The music of the duo that expresses the span of humanity. The inspirations are many: Basho, Hirschfeld, Bennett and Evans... The goal is one: To create the most with the least. It helps if you have a collaborator who shares a creative past- A remarkable pianist like Tedd Firth A virtuoso friend and musician of great versatility, sensitivity, and artistry. We recorded in the same room at the same time, one mic bleeding into the other working without a net playing in the vastness of the simple (Broadway-style). - Brian Stokes Mitchell About BRIAN STOKES MITCHELL Dubbed 'The Last Leading Man' by the New York Times, Brian Stokes Mitchell has enjoyed a rich and varied career of Broadway shows, television, film, recordings and appearances in the great American concert halls. A true renaissance man, his credits include work as an actor, singer, dancer, voice-over artist, author, arranger, orchestrator, conductor, and record producer. CONCERTS Stokes' musical artistry has kept him in demand by the country's finest conductors and orchestras. He has performed selections from Porgy and Bess with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony at Carnegie Hall; works by Aaron Copland and various contemporary composers at the Hollywood Bowl with the L.A. Philharmonic under the batons of Leonard Slatkin and John Mauceri; Broadway tunes at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. under the baton of the late Marvin Hamlisch; Duke Ellington tunes with the Smithsonian Jazz masterworks Orchestra and jazz and standards with Maestro John Williams at Disney Hall and with the Boston Pops. He debuted Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici's Rip Van Winkle with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leonard Slatkin. Stokes reprised his Tanglewood performance in John Williams' jazz version of My Fair Lady in December of 2004 at Disney Hall, singing with Dianne Reeves. In 2005, he made his cabaret debut as both singer and musical arranger at Feinstein's at the Regency in New York City in his critically acclaimed one-man show Love/Life, which then moved to the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center. He received both the New York Bistro and Nightlife awards for his cabaret debut. He returned there in November of 2008 with another critically acclaimed concert accompanied by his arrangements for guitar, bass and percussion. Stokes headlined the Carnegie Hall concert presentation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific with Reba McEntire, which aired on PBS in the Spring of 2006 and was also released on DVD and CD. He reprised his role, along with Ms. McEntire, in July of 2007 at the Hollywood Bowl and returned to the Bowl in 2008 starring as Javert in Les Miserables and again in 2009 as Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls. STAGE Stokes' Broadway career includes performances in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Man of La Mancha, (Tony nomination and Helen Hayes Award for Best Actor in a Musical), Kiss Me Kate (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Actor in a Musical), Ragtime (Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Musical), August Wilson's King Hedley II (Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Play), Kiss of the Spider Woman, Jelly's Last Jam (replacing Gregory Hines), David Merrick's Oh, Kay! And Mail, which earned him the Theatre World award for outstanding Broadway Debut. For the New York City Center Encores! Series, he has starred in Do, Re, Mi with Nathan Lane, Carnival with Anne Hathaway, and most recently in Kismet. In 1998 he joined the company of Helen Hayes. Sir John Gielgud. Alec Guinness. And James Earl Jones when he became the sole recipient of that year's Distinguished Performance Award from the Drama League, the nation's oldest theatrical honor, for his performance in Ragtime. SCREEN After his screen debut as a guest star in Roots: The next Generations, Stokes' long television career took off with a seven-year stint on TrapperJohn, MD. Among his many