Lifelong journey brings Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell to Wharton’s stage

What would Broadway’s leading man be if he weren’t a performer? Brian Stokes Mitchell says he’d probably be a theoretical physicist.

“I’m a big science nerd,” Mitchell said. “They’re the esoteric, imaginative group of scientists.”

As a child, Mitchell thought he’d go into aviation or marine biology. Instead, he became an award-winning actor and singer.

He’s also a community activist. Since 2004 he has been the chairman of the board of the Entertainment Workers Fund, formerly known as the Actor’s Fund. Under his leadership, the fund went from giving away an average of $2 million a year to 1,500 people to giving away $26 million during the pandemic to 18,000 workers.

He recently joined forces with Audra McDonald, Billy Porter and others to form Black Theatre United.

He’ll be performing at East Lansing’s Wharton Center at 8 .m. on Sept. 23.

How Brian Stokes Mitchell became a performer

His original career dreams might have stemmed from his father, who was one of the original Tuskegee airmen and worked for the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

However, acting discovered Mitchell.

He did “Godspell” with the Globe Theatre and performed in a song and dance company called The Bright Side starting at 15 years old. They did three to six shows a week and he got paid $15 a show.

One job led to another, eventually taking him to Los Angeles where he landed roles in “Roots: The Next Generation” and a seven-year stint on "Trapper John M.D.," the start of many television roles. By 1988, he was on Broadway where he would earn fame in “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “Jelly’s Last Jam,” “Ragtime” (Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Musical), “Kiss Me, Kate” (Tony win for Best Actor in a Musical), “King Hedley II” (Tony nomination), “Man of La Mancha” (Tony nomination), “Sweeney Todd” and “South Pacific.”

“It wasn’t like I ever remember that conscious choice,” Mitchell said. “It just got to be, I guess this is what I’m doing with my life because all these opportunities are offering themselves and they’re all great opportunities.”

He said he's remained curious about the world, a place he describes as amazing, miraculous and joyful even if it is sometimes also horrific, terrifying and stultifying. He brings that curiosity to his live shows, such as the upcoming one at Wharton Center.

“How do we respond to the different stimuli that are presented to us?” Mitchell asked. “That’s the fascinating and fun part of life and where I get to put my energy and my passion and my focus when I’m performing. It’s life and all the things that happen — crazy and not, wonderful and not — and putting that into a show in a way that people can relate to it and digest it and walk out of the theater feeling empowered and joyful and happy. That’s my thrust when I perform now.”

Serenading essential workers

During the early days of the pandemic, Mitchell sang “The Impossible Dream” from “Man of La Mancha” out his fifth floor window overlooking Broadway every day as essential workers made their trek to hospitals and other jobs, facing what was then the unknown. The song resonated as he sang about fighting the unbeatable foe, bearing the unbearable sorrow and running where the brave dare not go.

“Every lyric of that song lent itself to (what essential workers were doing),” Mitchell said. “That’s why it was the only song that I sang for the two and a half months that I sang it out of my window.”

There was one point where he almost stopped. There were more than 1,000 people listening to him sing. He was concerned they were clapping for him and not for the essential workers.

“This is my act of gratitude to those essential workers to sing the song, but it started feeling like people were gathering to hear me sing,” Mitchell said.

But then a neighbor stopped him to express his gratitude.

“He started getting very emotional and said ‘we come out to clap for all the essential workers, but we come out every night to hear you sing. I bring my wife and my two sons and it’s the one time in my day I feel joy,’” Mitchell said. “I realized in that moment, that’s why people are gathering. It’s a moment of joy in all this sadness and chaos and uncertainty and fear. It’s the one moment in life when people feel they’re not alone, there is hope. That’s why people love art.”

Changing the world for the better

After the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, Mitchell said Audra McDonald, LaChanze and Schele Williams wanted to translate their anger into action. They started calling their friends. Soon, 19 founding members would form Black Theatre United with the goal of changing things.

“We’re interested in change, but change by working with people,” Mitchell said. “Some people want change by challenging and making demands — and all of those are important. … We’re the group that is in a sense the old guard, trying to put everybody together and get conversations happening in the room.”

Their work has focused on bringing together theater owners, producers, creatives, directors, writers, musical directors and unions to negotiate and solve problems together. Mitchell said the task was made easier because they all knew each other and worked together.

“It was easy for us to be friendly, because we’re in a room with our friends,” Mitchell said. “It’s easier to solve problems when everybody’s sitting down at the table together. Let’s listen to each other. Let’s respect each other and let’s try to solve these myriad problems that we have. What we’re working on now is more equality, diversity and equity in the theater. We’re trying to do it in a positive way and a collaborative way because that’s how Broadway works best.”

Specializing in solo shows

While Mitchell has a long resume of Broadway, television, film and music credits, he says it is individual concerts like the one at Wharton Center that he loves the most. It still has the joys of performing before a live audience, but he doesn’t have to do eight shows a week. Plus, he can customize each show.

“If something happens in the world that I want to talk about or sing about, I can put it in last minute,” Mitchell said. “I’m doing the show with a trio and I have many, many choices. I design a show with an arc to it and it is different for every audience.”

He said he works consciously to connect with the audience.

“When I do a show, it’s like great church — I want the audience to feel better when they leave than they did when they walked in,” Mitchell said. “For me, it’s a sacred space. It’s a place of worship in a sense when you’re together. I want an audience when they leave to feel levitated, to feel lighter, to feel more connected to the other members of the audience and to the rest of the world.”

It’s part of what fuels his passion for performing — and staves off any regrets about not being a theoretical physicist. While the scientists are thinking of other universes and quarks, he is thinking about what it is like to be another person.

“You’re so lucky being a performer,” Mitchell said. “I get to do something that makes people happy, that gives them hope. I have an incredible job. I get to do that every night when I go on stage.”

If you go

What: An Evening with Brian Stokes Mitchell

When: 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23

Where: Wharton Center’s Cobb Great Hall

Tickets: From $39 at whartoncenter.com

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Brian Stokes Mitchell to perform at Wharton Center at Michigan State