Is there any working actor with a more powerful, beautiful voice than
Broadway’s “Last Great Leading Man,” Brian Stokes Mitchell? The
handsome baritone’s performance last night at the Kennedy Center leaves little room for doubt.

All gushing aside, Mitchell delivered a wonderful concert, pairing with the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by another Broadway great, A Chorus Line‘s composer Marvin Hamlisch.

Though the pair’s banter was occasionally hokey and strained, this hardly detracted from the reason the audience was there – to be wowed by Mitchell’s booming renditions of everything from Gershwin to Sondheim. Though the orchestra got plenty of opportunities to strut its stuff, from a South Pacific medley to a lovely selection from the current, somewhat obscure musical The Light In The Piazza, the show was largely Mitchell’s.