Brian's Song

Normally the term "breakout performance" is reserved for ingenues who strike gold after a Mountain Dew commercial or an indie film. But Brian Stokes Mitchell, the dynamic actor currently thrilling audiences in the musical Ragtime, is fi nally breaking into bona fide stardom after, oh, a scant 20 years in the business. You may-or may not-remem ber Mitchell from his days on Trapper John, M.D., or from Jelly's Last Jam. But it is his portrayal in Ragtime of Coalhouse Walker Jr., an indignant piano player turned terrorist, which could finally catapult the 39year-old actor into the pantheon of today's malor leading men. The Seattle-born Mitchell credits his Ragtime success to the show itself, which "has a strange power about it," he says. "Whether you're a William Morris agent or a cafeteria worker, the American images speak to us in a deep way." After his 22-week run in Ragtime in L.A.-with more than a few William Morris agents in the crowds-Mitchell may grow accustomed to working on soundstages rather than on Broadway stages very soon. "Be fore Ragtime, studio heads were very uninterest ed," he says. "Now I get their full attention. It's kind of like `Whaddya want to do next!?"