- published: 17 Oct 2008
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Brian Stokes Mitchell (born October 31, 1957) is an American stage, film and television actor and singer. A powerful baritone, he has been one of the central leading men of the Broadway theatre since the early 1990s. He won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical in 2000 for his performance in Kiss Me, Kate.
Mitchell was born in Seattle, Washington, the youngest of four children of George Mitchell, an electronics engineer, and his wife Lillian, a school administrator. Mitchell grew up at various U.S. military bases overseas, where his father was a civilian engineer for the U.S. Navy. As a teenager, he lived in San Diego, California, where he began acting in school musicals. Prior to Ragtime, he was known professionally as Brian Mitchell.
Mitchell's Broadway credits include Mail (1988), an all-black revival of George and Ira Gershwin's Oh, Kay! (1990), Jelly's Last Jam (1992) based on the works of jazz artist Jelly Roll Morton, Kander and Ebb's Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993), Ragtime (1998) (Tony Award nomination), the 1999 revival of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate (Tony Award), King Hedley II (2001) (Tony Award nomination) and Man of La Mancha (2002) (Tony Award nomination).
Jethro
A single thread in a tapestry
Through its color brightly shine
Can never see its purpose
In the pattern of the grand design
And the stone that sits on the very top
Of the mountains mighty face
Does it think it's more important
Than the stones that form the base?
So how can you see what your life is worth
Or where your value lies?
You can never see through the eyes of man
You must look at your life
Look at your life through heaven's eyes
Lai-la-lai
A lake of gold in the desert sand
Is less than a cool fresh spring
And to one lost sheep, a shepherd boy
Is greater than the richest king
If a man lose everything he owns
Has he truly lost his worth?
Or is it the beginning
Of a new and brighter birth?
So how do you measure the worth of a man
In wealth or strength or size?
In how much he gained or how much he gave?
The answer will come
The answer will come to him who tries
To look at his life through heaven's eyes
And that's why, we share all we have with you
Though there's little to be found
When all you've got is nothing
There's a lot to go around
No life can escape being blown about
By the winds of change and chance
And though you never know all the steps
You must learn to join the dance
You must learn to join the dance
Lai-la-lai
So how do you judge what a man is worth
By what he builds or buys?
You can never see with your eyes on earth
Look through heaven's eyes
Look at your life, look at your life