Mitchell Anderson shares the story behind his solo show, ‘You Better Call Your Mother’

Emmy-nominated actor, chef, and restaurateur Mitchell Anderson is no stranger to the spotlight. After bravely coming out on stage at a GLAAD awards dinner in 1996, Anderson continues to prove he’s not afraid to be vulnerable with audiences. The actor now presents his new original one-person cabaret-style show, “You Better Call Your Mother,” about his experiences in Hollywood, coming out in front of a live audience and where his adventures have led him. Anderson performs this live memoir, punctuated with song, at Synchronicity Theatre from November 4-7. He joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom and shared the reflections that inspired “You Better Call Your Mother.”

“At the beginning of the show, I talk about being in my MetroFresh kitchen, in the middle of the darkest December in modern history last year, thinking about this little boy who was a sort of over-achiever, this nerdy little boy,” said Anderson. “He grew up, and he went to have a career in Hollywood, and he wound up in Atlanta at age 60 in the MetroFresh kitchen selling soup for a living. And I thought, ‘Well, that seems like an interesting story, how did that all happen?’”

Anderson made a resolution to do something special with his story. “It was literally a New Year’s resolution,” he said. “So I reached out to fellow Juilliard alum and cabaret artist, amazing actress and singer Courtenay Collins, who I knew sort of peripherally but not really well, and I said, ‘How do I do this, Courtenay?’” As it turned out, the Atlanta theater mainstay Collins wouldn’t just offer her sage advice but would become the director of “You Better Call Your Mother.”