Review: JASON GRAAE'S GRAAETEST HIT'S (THE SEQUEL) at The Green Room 42 Is Great, Spelled The Right Way

One of the great things about Jason Graae (and there are many) is that he knows who he is and what his brand is. Obviously, Mr. Graae has been in show business long enough to know what his brand is - a statement like that is almost insultingly simple - except that there are many performers who go their entire lives working in the business without tapping, so incredibly strongly, into that artistic aesthetic that is most uniquely them. Jason Graae has not suffered that fate. Indeed, Jason Graae recognized his special gifts and leaned into them so long ago that he has been able to build a successful career around them, as was so spectacularly demonstrated in his one-man comedy show Jason Graae'S GRAAETEST HITS (THE SEQUEL). Oh, did I say comedy show? Yes, I did. You didn't read that wrong and I didn't type it wrong. Jason Graae has been doing a comedy show over at The Green Room 42 this last week. Yes, it is true that Jason Graae is a highly respected musical theater actor, a renowned singer, a trained musician, and a raconteur of note... but this, friends, was a comedy show. It was a comedy show that allowed Mr. Graae to use all the parts of himself, and it was constructed like a comedy show - a wonderful, glorious, Borscht Belt comedy show of days of old. Because Jason Graae is that gorgeous thing that so few know how to be anymore: Jason Graae is a Vaudevillian, and, just writing those words, this writer breathed a sigh of relief.

Vaudevillians are beautiful. The art of The Vaudevillian is something that, over the years, people have either eschewed, lost track of, tried to squash, or just forgotten. But it is an art form, and the industry needs Vaudevillians, and Jason Graae is one of the great Vaudevillians playing clubs (not often enough, if you ask this writer) with his signature brand of music, movement, clowning, and social commentary, and he must be seen.

In his performance on Sunday night, Mr. Graae used his life and his career as the centerpiece of the programming, sharing stories about the plays he has done, discussing the cross-pollination of his work on the stage and his life off the stage, and cracking wise about absolutely everything... except his marriage. And that is proper comedy act structure, so kudos to Mr. Graae for that structure. Jokes ran rampant about the career misses (hits get mentioned but comedy comes from the misses), there was much singing of songs in those famous Jason Graae vocals, clowning with the audience from the stage kept the bond chain-link strong, goofing with Musical Director Gerry Sternbach upped the comedy ante, and biting (BITING - underline it) bits about current affairs (specifically the 1776/Sara Porkalob debacle) grounded the performance in the present... but when the time came for Jason to talk about husband Glen Fretwell, the comedy curtain dropped. Every great comic must lower the mask, truly lower the mask, for a portion of their act - it's what makes the entire evening memorable: that moment when the comedian shows their audience that it's an act, that they have talent and a script, and that this is not just something they do because they are lucky enough to be naturally funny. Those few minutes of intimacy between the audience and the funny man, woman, or gender non-conforming person on the stage makes sweeter and stronger the comedy antics that bookend it. When Jason Graae set aside the shop talk and the hilarity to find Fretwell in the audience and gaze at "the love of my life" before singing the tender "What More Can I Say" from Falsettos, he came to live in our hearts, for a few minutes, before returning to our funny bones. It was a smooth transition acknowledging time-honored constructs of the art form and industry, and demonstrating that which we all already knew: Jason Graae really knows what he is doing, as an actor, as a singer, as a musician, as a clown - and as a writer. Scripts like this, shows like this, acts like this - they have to be created, they aren't put up on the fly, and the placement of every joke, of each story, and of all the emotions has been masterfully arranged, and, then, executed by this man willing to lug a heavy prop on and off the stage just for one joke.

Particularly pleasing were numbers in Mr. Graae's program that highlighted his longtime professional relationship and friendship with Jerry Herman (the vocals on a Herman/Sondheim mash-up were stunning), a slow-burning hilarious "Just a Gigolo," and a sight gag-informed "Tap Your Troubles Away'' that brought audience member Lee Roy Reams out of his seat, toward the stage, applauding and yelling, "Bravo, Jason, Bravo!" Factually, though, Jason Graae, with all the clowning, the self-deprecating humor, the sarcastic wit, the belting and crooning, and beautiful oboe-ing, couldn't make a wrong move. That is because he knows himself, that is because he knows his brand - and when a performing artist knows these things, creating and performing a proper club act is as easy as cutting an ice cream cake with a hot knife.

The Vaudevillian is alive and well, and his name is Jason Graae.

Find great shows to see at The Green Room 42 website HERE.

Visit the Jason Graae website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher; Visit the Stephen Mosher website HERE.

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