Some Atlantans know Mitchell Anderson as the chef who owns MetroFresh at the Midtown Promenade. For others, he is more familiar as a film and TV actor and gay activist who rose to prominence in the 1990s on such shows as Doogie Howser, M.D. and Party of Five. His coming out onstage at the 1996 GLAAD Media Awards was historic; very few Hollywood actors were openly gay at the time.

With his one-man autobiographical show You Better Call Your Mother on July 29 and 30, Anderson will take the stage at Out Front Theatre to share his own story with monologues, memories and some of his favorite songs. The proceeds from the show, directed by Broadway actress and singer Courtenay Collins and featuring musician Nick Silvestri, will benefit the theater.

“The funny thing is, when I approached Courtenay, I told her that I wanted to do a cabaret,” Anderson said in an interview. “I sat down and wrote. And then she said, ‘Mitchell, this is not a cabaret. This is a play.’”

First performed in 2021 at Synchronicity Theatre, You Better Call Your Mother was praised by ArtsATL as one of that year’s best theater shows. Critic Jim Farmer wrote, “Full of optimism and insight, You Better Call Your Mother was a heck of a calling card for its headliner.”

Anderson said he challenged himself to remount the show this year in multiple venues after not staging it at all in 2022 because of his work at MetroFresh, where customers may not be aware of his past. 

“The fun thing about this performance, especially after 20 years away from a day-to-day show business career, [is that] it kind of reminds people that I’m an actor,” Anderson said. “And, if they didn’t know that I sang, it gives me a fun opportunity to put that back out there.”

So far, he has performed You Better Call at the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York, and he will stage it in…