Video: In Rehearsals for Encores! LOVE LIFE with Kate Baldwin & Brian Stokes Mitchell

What's making this so special for you

Oh, I can't talk about that without crying. It's just so emotional

I mean, this is a show I've loved for so long. I've been working on it for seven years

It's just so beautiful to be with this group of people. And it all goes by so fast

You know, two weeks from now, the whole thing will be over. So for me, it's about the joy of being together in community and making something that we love

So, yeah, I can't. My heart is very full. I'm I'm I've got a figure

as ivory Strong and smooth as ivory Once it used to hold the

From now I want to use it We're going to be free

Yeah! I'm going to make that figure useful, holding a joy. We're going to be free

We're going back to the old days, right? Where we take real forgotten or underutilized, misunderstood

and taking a look at it again, and giving modern audiences a chance to experience it

And this is an adaptation of the show. It's very close to the original production, but we've added, we've refreshed it

and we think made it better for modern audiences You know it 77 years since the original production So the country has really changed and we all changed

And I think we want this to be as relevant and as modern and as edgy

and as deep as possible for modern audiences. Well, I think it was frankly one of two shows that we always knew we had to get to

The other one was the golden apple because people would say that, No one had seen it in a million years

and no one had seen Love Life in a million years, and Love Life was never recorded, and the cast album of the Golden Apple

was not a great cast album. So these were two shows that were born to be Encores

and it took us a surprisingly long time to get to them. Why this is so perfect for Encores, Rob

Well, it's just so worthwhile, because this is a piece that people have heard about

but never seen, most likely. So now is the chance to sort of everyone to see what it is

what's fabulous about it, what is remarkable about it, maybe also how it falls short from being an absolute classic

But I think that's, if you're a theater lover and a theater goer

I think it's a must-see and it's going to be a real treat. I play Samuel Cooper, who is kind of the American Everyman

And what's interesting about the show is we track this family, family of four throughout their relationship and where it begins and where it ends

as we're also tracking kind of the history of the United States

They start in the 1700s, but we follow the same couple as if we're kind of like catching up with the same couple

but now in the 1800s and now in the 1900s, but they never age

But the country does, and the country changes, and their relationship changes

And I think that what makes the show so really really interesting to watch You have a lot of different kinds of things going on that inform each other I play Susan Cooper and she married to Samuel and we have parted ways at the beginning of the show

And then we go back in time to rediscover what our relationship really was

Was it as great? Was it as real as we remembered it being? Who remembers it best

And you'll see that in one of the songs. Also, at the same time, we go through the transition that the United States is making

So we look at how marriage is affected by industrialization, by moving from an agrarian society to an industrial society, moving from being sort of isolated to being around other people

And so how that affects a marriage, how that affects a partnership, how ideas then filter in and cause a rift between a husband and wife

before they have to change together or change apart? Well, I played the hobo, which is like not a lot of information on it

but it gives a lot of people a chance to put their own preconceived notions on it. But this character is so cool because what I love so much about the character

it's like my character, we're going in, even from the costume and everything

it's kind of you can put your ideas of who this person can be

but it's most likely the person that society usually overlooks. from that one person, like, is trying to give this message of what we really need right now

and trying to bring everybody back to, trying to bring everybody back to their love

and trying to bring everybody back to what we're missing in the world right now

And this gets to sing this beautiful song so beautiful And it like almost like everything stops in that moment a little reminder So I love that character so much because I feel it lived so much life and has a very important message to tell

It was late at night. It was 6.15. You were dressed in whites

I was all in green. That's right. I remember it well. I really enjoyed being in the room with Rob and Vicky

We just, we have a great time. We laugh, which is so important

So I, and you know what, I love working. And I'm so grateful to be able to work quickly, preferably not so quickly

but it is on Cours and I get it. But I just, I like to feel like I'm participating

and helping maybe bring something to fruition. So that's, anytime I get to do that, I'm very happy to do that

But outside of that, you are right. But the moon was wrong

Yes, the moon was wrong. And I loved your soul. Yes, I didn't love you so

And it seemed even more than ever before that I'm right

Oh, yes, you're right. I remember it. Oh, yeah