At the start of the month, Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell announced that he had tested positive for coronavirus, but was already feeling on the mend. For over a week now, after he started feeling well enough that he could sing again, he has been serenading his Upper West Side neighborhood from his apartment window on Broadway every night at 7 p.m. (He joins others that have been creatively contributing to the 7 o'clock cheer, including one man who delivers an homage to Jimi Hendrix nightly on East 7th Street.)
You can see a video of one of his performances, taken last Saturday, below—as you can see, however, it has led to people below ignoring social distancing as they're drawn to Mitchell's booming, melodious voice.
Mitchell told CBS that he sings "The Impossible Dream" from Man of La Mancha, for which he received a 2003 Tony nomination, as an ode to healthcare and essential workers. It's not a song about trying to do the impossible, it's a song about trying, period. We don't do anything, we don't learn to fly, we don't get to the moon, we don't get to Mars, we don't cure the coronavirus until we first try. And that's what we have so many people doing right now."
"It was my way first to say...thank you to all the essential workers of New York," he added. "The health care workers, the first responders, the people that are delivering our food, the people that are working in the restaurants and are working in the supermarkets so that we can continue to live and do what we do.
As the head of the Actor's Fund, a nonprofit established in 1882 that provides a safety net for people in the performing arts, Mitchell has also been helping to support out-of-work Broadway actors and stage workers during this period. “It feels like those 138 years is a rehearsal for what’s going on right now,” he said of the group’s history. “A lot of people in the arts are considered gig workers.”
You can check out a few more videos of him performing below. During some of the performances, he has tweaked the words of the song to sing, “And the world will be better for this, that one healthcare worker scorned and covered with scars fought with his last ounce of courage."
If you are among the Stokes folks (Mitchell's nickname for his fans), you'll be happy to hear that he is taking part in an all-star birthday concert for legendary Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim, which will stream live on Sunday, April 26th at 8 p.m.—get more info here. And he's also been sharing some wonderfully terrible jokes with fans on Twitter.
