Brian Stokes Mitchell Sings Broadway on 5/11 at Freud Playhouse

Reprise Theatre Company presents Brian Stokes Mitchell Sings Broadway, a program especially created for Reprise. It will have one performance only on Monday, May 11 at 8 pm, at UCLA's Freud Playhouse.

Tickets go on sale Saturday, February 21; for tickets, priced at $100 (there is also premium seating), please call the UCLA Central Ticket Office at 310/825-2101 or visit www.reprise.org. Reprise is led by its artistic director Jason Alexander.

Brian Stokes Mitchell Sings Broadway is performed on the "dark Monday" during the run of "The Fantasticks," the final attraction of the 2008-2009 season.

Dubbed "The Last Leading Man" by the New York Times, Brian Stokes Mitchell has enjoyed a rich and varied career on Broadway, television and film, along with appearances in the great American concert halls.

His musical versatility has kept him in demand by some of 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 DC under the baton of Marvin Hamlisch (most recently at the National Symphony Orchestra's 75th season Pops concert debut); and jazz and standards with Maestro John Williams at Disney Hall and with the Boston Pops. He recently debuted Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Del Tredici's "Rip Van Winkle" with the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leonard Slatkin.

He reprised his Tanglewood performance in John Williams' Jazz version of "My Fair Lady" last December at Disney Hall singing with Dianne Reeves.

In 2005 he made his cabaret debut as both singer and musical arranger in New York at Feinstein's at the Regency 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.

In June he headlined the Carnegie Hall concert presentation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific" with Reba McEntire, which will aired on PBS in the Spring of 2006. It was released on DVD on June 6, 2006.

His Broadway career includes performances in "Man of La Mancha" (Tony nomination and Helen Hayes Award), "Kiss Me Kate" (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards), "Ragtime" (Tony nomination), August Wilson's "King Hedley II" (Tony nomination), "Kiss of the Spider Woman," "Jelly's Last Jam," David Merrick's "Oh, Kay!" and "Mail," which earned him a Theatre World award for outstanding Broadway Debut.

At Encores he has starred in "Do, Re, Mi" and "Carnival" and this last season starred in "Kismet." In 1998 he joined the likes 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."

His long television career began with a seven-year stint on "Trapper John, MD." Numerous film and TV appearances more recently include "One Last Thing" which debuted at this year's Toronto Film Festival, recurring roles on "Crossing Jordan" and "Frasier," PBS' "Great Performances," DreamWorks' "The Prince of Egypt," and his "Presidential Debut" in "The Singer and the Song" from the White House.

His latest venture is his June 6, 2006 release of his self-titled album as the inaugural artist on the newly-formed Playbill Records label. In addition to singing, Stokes produced the album and also wrote many of the arrangements and orchestrations. The executive producers are Playbill Record's president, Philip Birsh and Richard-Jay Alexander. It was mixed by 15-time Grammy winner Al Schmitt, and the liner notes were penned by John Williams. For more information, visit www.Playbillrecords.com.

Stokes has enjoyed working with numerous charitable organizations from the March of Dimes to the USO and is President of the Actors' Fund. For more information please check www.Brianstokes.com.

A complete list of credits can be seen on BroadwayWorld.com

About Reprise Theatre Company

Since its inception in 1997, Reprise Theatre Company has been a focus of the Los Angeles musical theatre community, producing productions of great American musicals, and a wide variety off concerts, staged-readings, special events and outreach programs. In May 2007, Jason Alexander became Artistic Director and he was joined by Susan Dietz, Producing Director.

Since its inaugural production of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Promises, Promises," which starred Mr. Alexander, Reprise has brought to the stage vibrant productions from all eras of American musical theatre including the Gershwins' "Of Thee I Sing" and "Strike Up the Band," Cole Porter's "Anything Goes," and Rodgers and Hart's "The Boys from Syracuse" and "Babes in Arms," as well as Richard Rodgers' later "No Strings." The "Golden Era" has been well represented - Burton Lane and E.Y. Harburg with "Finian's Rainbow," Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe with "Brigadoon," Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green with "On the Town" and "Wonderful Town," Irving Berlin with "Call Me Madam," Robert Wright and George Forrest with "Kismet," both of the Richard Adler and Jerry Ross musicals "The Pajama Game" and "Damn Yankees," Johnny Mercer and Gene dePaul with "Li'l Abner," Jule Styne with "Bells are Ringing," and Frank Loesser with "The Most Happy Fella."

Musical theatre reached a new peak of popularity in the sixties, along with new creative talents, and Reprise has presented shows by many of them including Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick with "She Loves Me," Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt MacDermot's "Hair," Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone with "1776," Charles Adams and Lee Strouse with "Applause," Stephen Schwartz with "Pippin," Cy Coleman with "On the Twentieth Century" (libretto by Betty Comden and Adolph Green) and "City of Angels" (lyrics by David Zippel), Jerry Herman with "Mack and Mabel," and three Stephen Sondheim musicals - "Company," "Sweeney Todd," and "Sunday in the Park with George."

Many of the great stage performers working today, as well as those who make their residence in primarily in Los Angeles, have appeared in Reprise shows including Scott Bakula, Christine Baranski, Brent Barrett, Orson Bean, Jodi Benson, Stephen Bogardus, Dan Butler, Len Cariou, Carolee Carmello, Vicki Carr, Anthony Crivello, Jason Danielely, Lea Delaria, Cleavant Derricks, Eden Espinosa, Manoel Feliciano, Rodney Gilfry, Kelsey Grammer, Harry Groener, Bob Gunton, Sam Harris, Gregory Harrison, Mimi Hines, Judy Kaye, Jane Krakowski, Marc Kudish, Judith Light, Rebecca Luker, Maureen McGovern, Joey McIntyre, Donna McKechnie, Andrea Marcovicci, Marin Mazzie, Julia Migenes, Karen Morrow, Burke Moses, Kelli O'Hara, Ken Page, Robert Picardo, David Hyde Pierce, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Roger Rees, Charles Nelson Reilly, Cathy Rigby, Douglas Sills, Rex Smith, Brent Spiner, Steven Weber, Marisa Jaret Winokur, Lillias White, Lee Wilkof, Fred Willard, and Rachel York.

 

 

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