Magically delicious

Jennifer K Mahal

Jason Graae is a cheeky fellow. Or maybe spritely would be a better

word for the twinkle-eyed performer whose saucy humor infuses his

conversations.

“I’m trying to be well behaved in this show,” the former “Forbidden

Broadway” performer said of his cabaret act at the Orange County

Performing Arts Center this weekend.

Not too well behaved, one hopes.

Graae (pronounced Graw) has earned kudos for his performances in

“Ragtime,” “Forbidden Broadway Y2K LA,” “Falsettos” and more. He has also

done spots on “Frasier” and “Friends,” although he is probably best known

on television as the voice of Lucky the Leprechaun in the Lucky Charms

commercials.

“I pay homage to him in my show,” Graae said. “I give the rise and the

fall of my Lucky Charms experience -- there will be production numbers in

my one-man show.”

Graae was bit by the theater bug early on in life.

“My mom was a stripper,” he jests, before going on to explain that his

mother, a dancer, did not actually take off her clothes. It was when, as

a young kid, he saw her play a role of a stripper in “Gypsy,” that he

found his calling.

The Tulsa, Okla. native went to Southern Methodist University in

Dallas as an oboe player, but “got sick of reeds” and transferred to the

Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where he studied musical theater. Upon

graduating, he “tap danced across the country,” until he landed in New

York.

It was while originating a role in the hit off-Broadway musical

“Forever Plaid” that he found a love of the cabaret style.

“It was my first taste of performing for people who were drinking, and

I really liked it,” Graae said. “I’m much more entertaining when people

are drunk.”

He did a number of shows -- revues with performers such as Kay Ballard

and Margaret Whiting -- at the Rainbow and Stars in New York, honing his

skills.

“It was really old school cabaret,” Graae said of performing at the

now-defunct club. “You felt like you were at Cole Porter’s party. Very

glamorous and what I thought New York was like.”

When he came to Los Angeles with “Ragtime,” in which he played Harry

Houdini, he stopped doing cabaret for a while, eschewing it in favor of

television and other work.

“It was fun to stop singing for a while, to not have to warm up and be

able to eat cheese,” the Beechwood Canyon resident said. “Then I realized

I was going nuts not singing.”

Just take a look at the cover of his CD “You’re Never Fully Dressed

Without A Smile,” and you’ll see the results of his avoidance of

craziness.

“My agent said if you want to sell more albums, you should drop trou

in this because no one knows you in Kansas,” said Graae, who appears on

the cover in the buff, except for a strategically placed straw hat. “He

was right. It got good attention.”

A one-man cabaret show at Los Angeles’ Cinegrill and in New York

titled “An Evening of Self Indulgence” and its sequel have played to good

reviews.

Daryl H. Miller of the LA Times called Graae “the Jekyll & Hyde of

cabaret. Or, perhaps, the three faces of Eve” for his ability to change

characters in the performance.

“I realize that this is the ilk of performance that I just love. It’s

dangerous to me,” said Graae, who will next be seen with the LA Opera in

“The Merry Wives of Windsor.” “Every night I feel vomitus before I do it,

but I love that feeling.”

There is one challenge Graae has yet to face -- the role of the emcee

in the musical “Cabaret.”

“I’ve been hired to do it and every time I’m hired, I get another

job,” said Graae, who thinks the role would be “demonic and delightful.”

“I wouldn’t mind doing something in ‘Death of a Salesman’ -- Biff,”

Graae said. “I’d never get cast as that. I’d have to do dinner theater in

Alaska. They’d put down their forks and weep at my performance.”

FYI

WHAT: Jason Graae

WHERE: Orange County Performing Arts Center’s Founders Hall, 600 Town

Center Drive, Costa Mesa

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. today, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday

COST: $43 for 7 and 7:30 p.m. shows, $39 for 9:30 p.m. show

CALL: (714) 740-7878