"Every year, Arizona Musicfest presents dozens of concerts that feature a wide range of music styles and many well-known artists. Last week, Tony Award winning actor and singer Brian Stokes Mitchell delighted the Musicfest audience in a concert of Broadway songs and personal stories with an abundance of charm and a voice that is both powerful and clear. With gifted musical director and accompanist Tedd Firth on piano, it was a stellar evening of story and song.
...He commands the stage with a firm presence, embodies every character he plays, even when singing a standalone song, and his voice pulls the audience in with its clear tones, rich and passionate delivery, and firm connection to the lyrics....Mitchell's concerts are always more than just a singer singing a selection of songs as they feature mini-theatrical performances in which he embodies the characters from the classic musicals who sang those songs on stage. With a shift in diction, dialect and tone, te transforms himself into each new character from song to song, sometimes even playing multiple roles in one number, which gives a theatrical feel to his concerts. These mini-musical segments included a beautifully sung "I, Don Quixote" from Man of La Mancha with Mitchell singing several verses of the number in Spanish, which emphasized the original basis of the character in the song. He then morphed into several of the male characters in Camelot in songs from that show that included a heartfelt "How to Handle a Woman" and a romantic "If Ever I Would Leave You."...With a soaring voice, a personal connection with the audience, and a commanding stage presence, Brian Stokes Mitchell is the quintessential entertainer....Although its auditorium is very large, Highlands Church, where the majority of the Arizona Musicfest performances are held, proved to be an excellent venue for this concert. The sight lines are clear from any seat, the acoustics are impeccable, and there are two large video screens on the sides of the stage that provided excellent close-up views from the several cameras that were located throughout the venue, including one that focused numerous times on the skilled piano work from accompanist Firth...." -Gil Benbrook, Talkin' Broadway (click here to read the complete review)
No comments:
Post a Comment
In order to avoid spam, comments will be moderated. Anonymous comments no longer will be allowed. If your comment is from an actual person it will be approved and posted in a timely manner.