Brian Stokes Mitchell Quotes

Brian Stokes Mitchell

Profession : Actor

Birth : October 31, 1957

The first role that I played as a musical - I was 14 years old, and I played Birdie in 'Bye Bye Birdie.' That was an awakening of, 'Wow, I'm good at that. People are responding.' And I hardly knew what I was doing back then, but there was something that people were seeing.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

'Kiss Me, Kate' was my 'Ragtime' Tony.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

You lose more than you win in life, and that's OK. That's the nature of life.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

My favorite music is jazz, actually. It's what I listen to, it's what I was raised on, and it's what I prefer to sing.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

One of the best pieces of wisdom I ever got is you work because you work, meaning you work because you're saying yes to things, and you're connecting with people.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

Variety is the key to not being bored.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

That's what I love about New York. So many people crowded together, pushing against one another. And that's what I hate about New York. So many people crowded together, pushing against one another.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

When you're doing eight shows a week, you don't have much of a personal life.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

When I moved to Los Angeles, I thought, 'Whatever hits, I'll go that direction. If it's music, fine; if it's acting, fine.'

Brian Stokes Mitchell

I wouldn't call what I do 'dance.'

Brian Stokes Mitchell

I love doing theater. It's what I grew up in and is my roots. I get a huge fulfillment from it. But if my path is to go someplace else, hey, I'm there.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

People in the performing arts have a lot of other skills they don't realize they can utilize, and part of what the Actors Fund program is there to do is wake their head up to realize there are other things they can do.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

I love rethinking and reimagining songs.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

I love the theater, and I just don't love television like that.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

People comment on the way that I phrase. And in my 20s, I realized, my phrasing is jazz phrasing. I don't comply strictly with musical theater phrasing. Musical theater tends to be very one and three, and jazz is definitely two and four.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

I love rearranging and reimagining tunes, so I want my audience to enjoy hearing songs in a new way and make their own discoveries.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

Astaire was ballroom, basically, and Gene Kelly had such athleticism - that's always what I responded to and what just blew my head open when I watched Gene Kelly's numbers. But, Fred Astaire was just so incredibly inventive and so, so smooth - so smooth.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

When I was 6 years old, I asked my parents for an organ. I don't have any idea why I wanted an organ.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

You need raw talent to be successful.

Brian Stokes Mitchell

I started out on the stage, then I had a great career in television for quite a few years. The good news about a TV series is that they give you a certain amount of fame and money. The bad news is that you're in people's living rooms every week and get associated with a particular character.

Brian Stokes Mitchell