Brian Stokes Mitchell & Orchestra, Tedd Firth music director, Steve Bargenetti, Gary Haase, Mark McLean, Ann Labin, Tallie Brunfelt, Jocelin Pan,Andrew Nielson Photo

From: Photo Coverage: Brian Stokes Mitchell Makes Solo Debut at Feinstein's/54 Below

It's one thing to be able to act and sing like Brian Stokes Mitchell, but in addition, there is a whole other level of musicianship Brian possesses that enabled him to conceive and create his opening number, 'There's No Business Like Show Business'.  As 'Stokes' pointed out, his musical mind is in sync with his brilliant music director, Tedd Firth.  The two of them have produced an arrangement of this Irving Berlin standard that takes you on a roller coaster ride of meter and key changes.  A little bit of math proficiency was also probably needed because the Stokes/Firth arrangement starts off as a ballad and then weaves it's way through a variety of tempos which include 7/8 & 5/4. It certainly was indicative of the title of his cabaret show, 'Playing With Music.'