"Stokes" Enchants Boston

There was a love affair being publicly displayed at the Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, Mass., on Friday, May 11 at 8 p.m., but unlike a few days earlier during a Boston Pops concert at Symphony Hall, no arrests were made. That's because this affair was the mutual adoration between consummate Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell and 1700 rapturous fans.

The affable "Stokes," accompanied on piano by a very gifted Gerard D'Angelo, began his 75-minute set to thunderous applause when he let his booming baritone loose on "Some Enchanted Evening." He immediately proceeded to "cool the room down by mixing it up" with his next song, a smooth, finger-snapping jazz rendition of Cy Coleman's "The Best Is Yet to Come."

Throughout the evening Stokes demonstrated the power and versatility of his glorious instrument by gliding seamlessly between his signature Broadway showstoppers, selections from the Great American Songbook, and lesser known numbers that struck in him a personal chord. One of many spine-tingling highlights was his unplugged version of "This Nearly Was Mine," his favorite song and the 11 o'clock number from "South Pacific." How thrilling to hear his naturally rich, unforced operatic tones fill the acoustically magnificent Sanders Theatre without the "benefit" of electronic amplification.

Stokes crooned a few tunes, too, bringing sounds reminiscent of Billy Eckstine and Johnny Mathis to smoldering arrangements of "So in Love" and "The Very Thought of You." A hilarious story about how he came to do "Kiss Me, Kate" despite his original "hatred" for the show led to a steamy contemporary jazz/blues rendition of Cole Porter's "Love for Sale."

The Tony Award winner whose career was given a major thrust forward when he starred as Coalhouse Walker, Jr. in Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's epic Broadway musical "Ragtime" paid tribute to the prolific composing team with two passionately delivered numbers: their classic "Wheels of a Dream" and a power ballad titled "I Was Here" from their newest musical, "The Glorious Ones." He also showed endearingly boyish, comically vulnerable, and adoringly paternalistic sides to his personality in his banter and delivery of the specialty numbers "Being Green," "Hooray for Tom" and "New Words," all dedicated to his three-year-old son.

The program, performed without intermission, came to a close all too soon with Stokes caressing the audience with three warm and wonderful standards: "They Can't Take That Away From Me," "Embraceable You," and "I'm Beginning to See the Light." However, deeming the ecstatic Boston audience "worthy," he sang not one, not two, but three encores, joking that he never does "just one more. I'd be eating prosciutto by now."

"Some Other Time" served as a gentle kiss goodnight that was followed by the stirring, seat emptying "Impossible Dream." Clearly not wanting to let the moment go just yet, Stokes returned from the wings hand in hand with his accompanist to deliver an impromptu "How Long Has This Been Going On?" which D'Angelo played from memory, without sheet music.

During the evening Stokes waxed poetic about the beauty of live performance and the importance of being entertained in three dimensions. "There are many collaborators for a show like this," he said. "The composers, arrangers, accompanist and stage crew. But the last character to arrive is the audience. You make the difference. This particular experience will never happen again. Thank you."

Thank you, Stokes. We weren't just entertained. We were transported.

 

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