Review: JASON GRAAE: GRAAVITAS at CVRep

Jason Graae presented his new Cabaret act: GRAAVITAS at the CVRep Summer Cabaret Series. Jason who? Why isn’t this sharp-witted entertainer, a household name? He is the real deal. His comfortable command of the stage places him in a long line-up of the best Cabaret Performers in the world.

Graae? Gray? Nope! Pronounced "grah" or "graw", not "gray".   He opened this act with a hilarious parody version of the Sondheim classic “Not Getting Married Today” from Company; as “I’m Not Doing this Cabaret Today” poking fun at the pronunciation of his last name. The beautiful soprano Leslie Tinnaro (who graced the CVRep stage the night before) joined Graae immediately in this perfect opener. Also helping to impress during this opening number was a young man named Adam Karstein. Handsome with a good singing voice; keep an eye out for him, he’s got the potential to be a local star.

Graae is a funny man with marvelous singing chops. He is best known for many musical theater performances, but with a varied entertainment career which includes  Broadway, opera, television, film, and excels in the intimate setting of Cabaret.  He has won four bistro awards, two Ovation Awards, two New York Nightlife Awards, the Theatre Bay Area Award for Best Actor in a Musical and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Joel Hirschhorn Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical theatre.

For the remainder of this Cabaret act the performance was solo Graae and piano. He was accompanied by the magnificent Maestro of the keyboard, Jerry Sternbach. It was stated during the performance that he doesn’t just play the piano; he makes love to it. His fingers are skilled.

In the beginning, the storytelling was at a minimum, then Graae pulled out a piece of paper and read his family history. His patter was clever and witty as he read his biography. His father as Danish and his mother was a dancer in New York, not on Broadway, but in nightclubs. One of her best friends growing up was Dorothy Loudon. (That was a fabulous name from Broadway past) They were in recitals together. His mother was a ballet and tap dancer – according to Graaee she would do both at the same time and bring down the house. When asked what Dorothy Loudon did at all the recitals and his mother said, "She was hammy and sang loud. Nobody thought too much about her."  -- Yeah, right, and the rest is Dorothy Loudon TONY Winning history.

A more serious and interesting story was when the Nazis’ invaded Copenhagen in Denmark, his dad was living there and he got a visa to Finland; he then got on a boat to go to America from there. The great Danish pianist/comedian Victor Borge was also on the boat, who was on Hitler's most hated list because he’d ruthlessly make fun of him. In the story Graae told; his dad got really drunk one night and he went up to Victor Borge, whose real name was Victor Rosenbaum. He bravely said, "Hey, Rosenbaum, I think you should do a show for the people." Borge looked down and said, "It's not that kind of cruise."  When Graae was Off-Broadway doing Forever Plaid, Victor Borge came to see the show and he waited around to talk to the cast afterwards. Jason reminded Victor of the boat crossing and he laughed. In the middle of Borge talking very specifically about Forever Plaid, one of the cocktail waitresses walked by and he just stopped mid-sentence and followed her with his eyes in this long, slow take as she walked out of the room. "You all are fine," he said, "but she was my favorite."  Later, Graae called his father who was living in Chicago, and told him what happened.  His dad, who was not remotely sentimental, cried. He was so excited that Borge came to see Jason on stage. That was the first time his dad thought, "I think my son's doing okay."

Many musical moments show off the various styles Graae can execute with ease. He is by far the most comfortable performer I have seen on stage. He flows effortlessly from comedy to heartfelt ballads in an instant. Several stand out moments are Cole Porter’s “You Got That Thing” with such hilarious physicality. “To Keep My Love Alive” from Rodgers & Hart’s musical, A Connecticut Yankee. The powerfully emotional “I’ll Be There Tomorrow” from The Grand Tour. And his skillfully playing the Oboe with perfect comic timing.  I could name every moment in this cabaret act as a favorite because Graae is a master class in comfort and ease as an entertainer on the stage. We hope he will come back to CVRep again, and again every summer.

Grand performances, great music, and personality plus make the COACHELLA VALLEY REPERTORY 2024 SUMMER CABARET SERIES among the very best ways to enjoy Downtown Cathedral City. CVRep has scheduled 17 memorable evenings of award-winning talent, vivacious personalities, music and song, levity, and stories that are just waiting to be shared. This year’s Summer Cabaret Series continues to run through July 25, and has been expanded to include two shows every week!

Showtime is at 7PM. Tickets are $50 and on sale now. They may be ordered online at www.cvrep.org, by calling (760) 296-2966, ext. 201, or at the CVRep box office located at 68510 East Palm Canyon Dr., Cathedral City. Special custom ticket packages are available. The box office is open Tuesdays-Saturdays from 10 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and one hour prior to performances. In order to better serve audiences, patrons requesting accessibility assistance are encouraged to contact the box office at least 24 hours prior to their ticketed performance. Artists, show titles and dates are subject to change.

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