Stokes: In Tune with the Boston Pops

The Boston Pops Presents Brian Stokes Mitchell

Performances: Tuesday and Wednesday, June 17 and 18 at 8 p.m., Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Mass.; Sunday, August 17, 8:30 p.m., Koussevitzky Music Shed, Tanglewood, Lenox, Mass.
Box Office: 617-266-1200, 888-266-1200, or online at www.bso.org

Fans of the Boston Pops have been enjoying a healthy dose of Broadway this season, first with a tribute to Leonard Bernstein, then a staged concert version of A Little Night Music, and now with a two-night stand by "Broadway's Leading Man," Brian Stokes Mitchell. Stokes, as he is more casually known, is a perennial favorite in Beantown and environs. Last year, as a guest of Boston's popular Celebrity Series, he gave a solo performance at the Sanders Theatre in Cambridge and later teamed with Marin Mazzie and the Boston Pops for a Gershwin tribute at Tanglewood. This time around he is appearing at the venerable Symphony Hall, singing a selection of his favorites from his longer solo act which he informally calls, "Songs I Want to Sing."

In a bit of a departure from the Pops' typical programming, Stokes takes over the entire second half of the evening. No grand instrumentals by the Esplanade Orchestra interrupt the flow of his tightly constructed 11-song set. At the top Stokes bursts onto the stage with his joyful rendition of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Some Enchanted Evening" from South Pacific and follows that spine-tingling ballad immediately with another – Ahrens and Flaherty's anthemic "Wheels of a Dream" from their landmark musical Ragtime. Mitchell's sonorous baritone penetrates right to the bone, bathing the audience in waves of rich, smooth silk. He wastes no time in establishing himself as an undeniable vocal force.

A bit of friendly patter about the historic figures who have graced the stage at Symphony Hall leads into a tongue-twisting Russian rap of sorts in which Stokes rattles off the names of what seems like dozens of composers, conductors and virtuosi who have brought their Eastern European culture to Boston since the hall opened in 1900. Making sure that his "history lesson" is learned, he repeats the doggerel, this time in double time. At the end, Maestro Lockhart chimes in, "We're not doing it again." It might have been wiser not to do the throwaway number at all. One of Mitchell's jazzier tunes from his self-titled CD, perhaps "The Best Is Yet to Come" or "Just in Time," would have showcased his and the orchestra's versatility more pleasantly.

His somewhat generic "Don't Rain on My Parade" lacks the colors and attitudinal dash that a female voice brings to it, but his soft and sultry "How Long Has This Been Going On?" is like a sensuous embrace. Here voice and orchestra are in perfect harmony. The Pops' rhythm section and side clarinet, along with Mitchell's musical director and accompanist Gerard D'Angelo, partner with Stokes in an evocative love duet that is at once creamy, dreamy, and downright steamy. The romantic theme continues with a resonant "This Nearly Was Mine" that Mitchell sings unplugged, taking advantage of what he describes as one of the three best acoustically designed music halls in the world. With magnificent, unforced operatic control, Stokes draws the audience into his intimate despair, each note a pure expression of deep longing and loss.

Another Ahrens and Flaherty favorite, "I Was Here" from The Glorious Ones, leads into a gentle medley of three aw-inspiring songs that Stokes dedicates to his 4-year-old son – Jim Henson and Joe Raposo's "It's Not Easy Being Green," Bruce Hornsby's "Hooray for Tom," and Maury Yeston's "New Words." A warm glow shines in Mitchell's sparkling eyes as he relives his sweetly self-conscious boyhood in the first two numbers and then tenderly instructs his all but physically present son in the meaning of simple but important words like moon, stars, and love in the closer.

A climactic "Impossible Dream" ends the set on a power note and elicits the expected standing ovation. Mitchell returns for his one encore, Bernstein's melancholy song of adieu from On the Town, "Some Other Time."

On this particular evening at Pops, the first act included a repeat of selections from the Bernstein Tribute that was featured during Week 1 of the season, followed by performances from three semi-finalists in the inaugural Boston Pops High School Sing-Off. Molly Evans from the Walnut Hill School sold a fun "Broadway Baby" from Follies while Adam Randall, Meghan Ryan, and Michael Ryan from Braintree High School and Brianna Shelter and Kristin Shelter from North Quincy High School performed a rousing "One Day More" from Les Misérables. If this critic had a vote, however, it would go hands down to Samara Oster of Milton Academy. Her deeply emotional, beautifully mature and stunning interpretation of "Your Daddy's Son" from Ragtime sent chills throughout the auditorium. Move over, Audra. Someday soon there'll be a new kid in town.