Jason Graae
It’s a Graae Night for Singing
54 Below, NYC, April 1, 2026
Reviewed by Bart Greenberg
Courtesy of 54 Below
Jason Graae made his solo debut at 54 Below in his high-energy and very funny show, It’s a Graae Night for Singing. He sang, he told stories, he threatened to tap dance, he touched our hearts, and if the room had curtains, he probably would have swung on them. “Irrepressible” could be a word created to describe him. He burst onto the stage to deliver his very personalized version of “As If We Never Said Goodbye” (Andrew Lloyd Webber/Don Black) coupled with his theme song, “It’s a Graae Night for Singing” (Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein, II). Sustaining this height of chaos would seem to be impossible, but he did so with an equally personalized version of “Wild and Reckless” (Milt Schaeffer/Ira Levin) from the musical Drat the Cat (he got to play the leading man for once on the superlative studio recording).
With his colleague in entertainment, music director/pianist Gerry Sternbach, he continued to entertain the audience with some stories about his mother, which led to a tender “You’ll Never Get Away from Me” (Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim), and about his father. These human moments helped to balance the chaotic humor elsewhere, such as in his delicious “To Keep My Love Alive” (Richard Rodgers/Lorenz Hart) and a marvelous “Annoying Perky Medley” that was a collection of classic Broadway scores he had recorded (playing the annoying perky best friend).
Of course, there was even more to the ever-surprising Graae. Just as Kaye Ballard played the flute as part of her cabaret act and Jack Benny attacked the violin, the star of this evening showed his talent on the oboe as he interpreted selections by Bizet, Gershwin, and Berlin. The show also had some surprisingly quiet moments, including a beautiful ballad by Sternbach and Lindy Robbins titled “Something That I Wanted You to Know.” One would have to have a heart of stone not to be moved when he invited his husband Glen Fretwell on stage to duet on “For Good” (Stephen Schwartz), which they sang while they stared into each other’s eyes. As another one of the songs in the show expressed, that was a “Little Patch of Heaven” (Alan Menken/Glen Slater).
