Inspired by an article published on Playbill.com prior to his official Broadway debut in It Shoulda Been You, Grisetti will narrate "his own journey from a small-town kid to Broadway's newest star — exposing all of the victories and defeats in between. The story begins with Josh seeing his first musical, and ends in real-time with his first-ever solo performance at 54 Below, months after making a critically-acclaimed Broadway debut (the title role in this season's It Shoulda Been You). Through laughter and song, Josh candidly tells one man's harrowing true story of Broadway dreaming and disaster, LIVE with a 7-piece band!"
Audiences can expect an eclectic selection of songs, including standards and numbers pulled from musicals Grisetti is best known for (Enter Laughing, How to Succeed…) as well as a few quirky surprises. He promises "almost no boring songs."
Before Grisetti was starring in It Shoulda Been You, he was to debut as the star of Neil Simon's Broadway Bound in 2009 (which was running in repertory with Brighton Beach Memoirs). But, when Brighton Beach opened to weak ticket sales, Broadway Bound was halted before it even began. Both shows closed Nov. 1, 2009. And, Grisetti — only part of the Broadway Bound cast — never made it to the Great White Way.
He told Playbill.com, "When I got that phone call, the disbelief of it — I literally fell down to my knees and just wept, in sheer shock and utter mourning for the loss of what was a dream coming true that was cut out right from underneath me," he openly admits. "It was devastating. It really was. And, I had romanticized it and put so much — I don't know what you call it — sentimentality behind it about everything that it meant for me to be starring in a play on Broadway as my Broadway debut, and then to have it all taken away… It was a shock to my system and to my soul."
Read more about his story and how he overcame the Broadway heartbreak here. Matt Castle will provide music direction with musical arrangements by Castle and James Harvey. Deborah Poppel produces.
54 Below is located at 254 West 54th Street. Show times are 7 PM. There is a $30-40 cover charge and a $25 food and beverage minimum. For more information and tickets, visit 54Below.com or call (646) 476-3551.