Jason Graae

It ran at Steve McGraw's for over four years with more than 1800 performances and, as his first hit show, helped him to become increasingly well known.

The original four cast members shared a Bistro Award for Forever Plaid.

He described Victor Borge, who came to America on the same boat as his father as both fled the 1940 invasion of Denmark, as his main inspiration.

Jason Graae (pronounced "grah" or "graw", but not "gray" ) (born 15 May 1958) is an American musical theater actor, best known for his musical theater performances but with a varied career spanning Broadway, opera, television and film.

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.

Though he was born in Chicago, Graae was educated in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at Edison Preparatory School where he played the oboe, acted in plays, and sang in the chorus.

He appeared in a production of the musical George M! in the seventh grade.

Graae was a member of the Tulsa Youth Symphony for four years in high school as the principal oboist.

Following his passion for music, Graae went to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, hoping to become a concert oboist, but did not like his instructor's approach.

He transferred to the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music only to have his previous instructor move there as well.

Taking this as "a sign from the musical gods", he pursued a career in musical theatre instead.

He graduated in 1980 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theatre from the now-merged University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music.

His mother was a dancer in Broadway musicals who moved to Europe after marrying his father; they fled from the Nazis in World War II and returned to the United States.

His father was also musical, playing cello in a symphony outside Chicago in his spare time (while working as a scientist), and his sister is a classical pianist.

Graae's first agent urged him to change his surname to "Grey" but he refused, wanting to honour his Danish father.

Graae made his off-Broadway debut in Godspell with Liz Callaway in 1980, forming a friendship which had them performing together in cabarets nearly 30 years later.

In an interview he said that "life has indeed upheaved as I know it.... We're thinking of starting a new sitcom called 'Two Gays, a Dog and an Old Lady.'" Graae came out to his mother in 1983, an experience recalled in his two-hander production The Prince and the Showboy with Faith Prince.

He made his Broadway debut in Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?Jason created the role of Sparky in the musical Forever Plaid and was an original cast member alongside Stan Chandler, David Engel, and Guy Stroman, when it opened off-Broadway in 1989.

Around the same time, he was nominated for the 1993 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical for Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh.

In 1997, Graae starred in the US premiere of Ragtime in the role of Houdini.

Most recently, Jason traveled the U.S. for a year and 1/2 as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the National Tour of Wicked.

Graae's reputation has grown on Broadway with roles in the Rodgers and Hammerstein revue A Grand Night for Singing, Falsettos, Stardust, Snoopy!!!, and Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?.

His voice work in advertising includes as the Lucky Charms leprechaun and representing Western Union Moneygrams, and he performed a singing voice in the film Home on the Range for Disney.

In 2000, Graae was cast in Forbidden Broadway Y2K LA!, an updated version of the Forbidden Broadway franchise of revues which parody musical theatre.

The franchise had earlier spawned a spinoff a similar parody of the world of Hollywood in which Graae had appeared.

He earned a nomination for an Ovation Award for Forbidden Hollywood and won an Ovation Award for Forbidden Broadway Y2K LA! He is included on the Forbidden Broadway: 20th Anniversary Edition cast album, the sixth in the series.

He received an Ovation Award nomination for Anything Goes in 2003 and around the same time was developing his one-man show, Coup de Graae!.

He has performed this show in numerous cities including New York, San Francisco, and Hollywood.

In 2004, Graae took on the one-man play Fully Committed, which required him to perform 30 different roles in 80 minutes.

It was amongst Time Out New York’s top 10 cabaret acts of 2006.

Coup de Graae! includes songs and stories from Graae's life (featuring Rodgers and Hart, Jerry Herman, and the Bergmans), and references to his voice-over work; he is described as "the complete entertainer, giddy, irreverent, mischievous and moving, often at the same time."

The Los Angeles Times described the show as "an eclectic banquet of standards, show tunes, pop songs, incisive wit, easygoing charm and a humorous dessert featuring his tale as the voice of 'Lucky the Leprechaun'."

The show won a New York Nightlife Award for Graae.

In 2007, his mother moved from Tulsa to Los Angeles to live with Graae and his partner.

He has developed other eponymous shows, including Graae's Anatomy (2007) and 491⁄2 Shades of Graae (2014).

He was the English voice for the protagonist Barry in the 2011 French animated film Sunshine Barry and the Disco Worms, co-starring Jane Lynch and David Bateson.

His television roles include recurring appearances as Chad on the Showtime series Rude Awakening and as Dennis on HBO's Six Feet Under.

He has guest starred in TV shows including Friends, Frasier, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Caroline in the City, Living Single, and Providence, as well as in films including The Dukes of Hazzard: Hazzard in Hollywood! and Geppetto.

Graae has released commercial audio recordings including You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile: Jason Graae Sings Charles Strouse, described as perfectly capturing "the mood and atmosphere of the cabaret experience – from the entertaining 'novelty' songs which he infuses with his own apt sense of humor, to the ballads interpreted beautifully."

Graae was uncertain about the album's cover photo in which he appears "wearing nothing but a sly smile, a top hat (not on his head) and a cane" – and he "searched long and hard for the biggest hat [he] could find" – but ultimately agreed that it would be intriguing and is glad he did it.