Broadway, CDs haven’t done Mitchell justice

Brian Stokes Mitchell looks like an ordinary, affable guy. He smiles a lot. But when he opened his New York Stage & Beyond concert Friday night with Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Some Enchanted Evening," he lost any sense of ordinary.

This guy next door has the powerhouse voice of an Ezio Pinza, with a sensitivity to lyric that even Pinza never achieved. It's amazing, too, how he can slide so effortlessly from romantic near-opera to Cy Coleman-jazz and Bette Midler nonsense. (He does a mean "Twisted.")

It became apparent very early in the 100-minute (plus intermission) evening that the world of stage and CDs hasn't yet done the leading man justice. His roles in "Ragtime" and "Man of La Mancha" haven't projected his marvelous sense of play, and his recordings don't capture the magic of hearing him live.

Dressed formally in a dark, orange-striped suit with orange shirt and orange polka-dotted tie (it looked better than it sounds) and performing in front of a closed red curtain with three onstage musicians, Mitchell made no attempt at visual spectacle. Just him and a microphone. And in one memorable moment, he did the unthinkable and pulled an Ethel Merman by getting rid of the mic. The result was a breathtakingly moving (and very audible) rendition of "South Pacific's" ode to love lost, "This Nearly Was Mine." It was enough to make you yearn for the old days when electronics played a minor role in Broadway entertainment.

The program was a hodgepodge of Great White Way standards, preceded by informal chit-chat (complete with an ever-present coffee cup) that offered interesting material background. He noted that he had no interest in doing the celebrated 2000 revival of "Kiss Me Kate" because he felt the script was shallow. He changed his mind when he realized the strength of the show lay in what was beneath the dialogue. The role brought him a Tony Award.

Mitchell's acting skills show through in his singing. His ability and willingness to put himself at the service of a song made for a series of moving, character-driven dramas.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.