Craig Rubano

MAC Award Winner for Best Recording

Back Stage Bistro Award Winner for Outstanding Vocalist

MAC Award Winner for Outstanding Vocalist

Desert Star Award for Outstanding Lead Male Performer in a Cabaret/Revue/Variety Show

MAC Award Nominee for Best Debut

Creative Music Solutions Award Winner for Recording of the Year

MAC Award Winner for Best Recording (Various Artists)

Craig Rubano is a summa cum laude Yale College graduate with Highest Distinction in Literature and Philosophy; he received a Master of Arts degree in English & Comparative Literature from Columbia University as its Marjorie Hope Nicholson Fellow in the Humanities. At Princeton Theological Seminary, Craig received Master of Divinity (Arthur Paul Rech Award for Academic Excellence) and Master of Theology degrees, as well as achieving a Ph.D. in Pastoral Theology. Craig is an ordained in the Unitarian Universalist faith movement, as the settled minister at the UU Congregation of Monmouth County in Lincroft, NJ.

Craig began his professional theatrical career as a pig when composer Charles Strouse cast him as “Wilbur” in the New York premiere of Charlotte’s Web: The Musical. He made his Broadway debut as young lover Marius Pontmercy in Les Misérables, performing the role over 700 times. Craig was an original Broadway cast member of Frank Wildhorn’s Tony & Grammy Award-nominated The Scarlet Pimpernel (Atlantic Records) and Pimpernel II (Pimp. Encore, Atlantic Records). He played Algy Moncrieff in the first New York revival of Ernest in Love; Dorian in Dorian Gray; and Zeppo Marx in the Goodspeed Opera House’s hit revival of Animal Crackers. He performed for a hometown, nightly audience of ten thousand at the St. Louis Muny’s An Evening of Richard Rodgers; and he played murderer Winston Moseley in the National Music Theater Conference’s development of The Screams of Kitty Genovese at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and then at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals. Craig played Dennis (the Monster) in a VT Crossroads production of Stefania de Kenessey’s comic opera The Monster Bed.

Craig’s concert experience began a cappella, at Yale. As a member of singing groups Redhot & Blue and, following in Cole Porter’s footsteps, The Whiffenpoofs, he performed in 37 U.S. states and 13 foreign countries: highlights included a Carnegie Hall salute to Cole Porter; a Bangkok debut of love songs written by the King of Thailand; a stint at Copenhägen’s Tivoli Gardens; and a command performance in Monte Carlo for then Prince Albert of Monaco.

As a solo artist, Craig joined the Philip Glass Ensemble in Greece for Monsters of Grace, Glass’s 3-D digital opera collaboration with Robert Wilson; he sang in Lyon for the Orchestre National de Lyon’s Broadway Parade; he premiered as Edmund in Narnia Suite at Avery Fisher Hall with The Little Orchestra Society; he soloed in the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s tribute to Stephen Sondheim; and he joined Bernadette Peters for her Carnegie Hall solo debut and its Grammy-nominated live album (Angel Records). Craig was commissioned by the Brownville Center for the Arts to write, produce, and co-star in Keep Christmas with You (All through the Year), and he was among five Broadway performers selected to christen the Reignwood Theatre in Beijing, China. Craig joined Metropolitan Opera and Broadway performers in NYC at Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Auditorium for Melody with a Mission’s Benefit Concert for Ukraine: Songs of Freedom, Resilience, and Hope.

Craig’s debut solo recording, Finishing the Act: Act One Finales from Broadway (AF Records), was the MAC (Manhattan Association of Clubs) Award-winning Recording of the Year. The NY Post hailed Craig’s “resounding legit voice,” on an “impeccably produced, gloriously orchestrated CD.” Stephen Holden of the New York Times wrote of the subsequent Finishing the Act concert show, “Craig Rubano has an intelligence and wit to match his robust baritone...an exceptionally well-conceived cabaret debut,” awarding the show a star. Craig has gone on to win Back Stage Bistro, Palm Springs Desert Star, JPF Recording Producer, Creative Music Solutions Talent Search, and four MAC, awards. To his Producer credit on Finishing the Act, Craig added (on his own label, Prosody Records) his second solo CD, Change Partners, and a collaboration with Mark Nadler and KT Sullivan, The Night They Invented Champagne: Operetta and its Musical Legacy.

In addition to Finishing the Act, Craig’s touring concert group shows are: Something Wonderful: Celebrating Richard Rodgers (w/ Heather Mac Rae, Mr. Nadler & Ms. Sullivan), The Night They Invented Champagne: Operetta and its Musical Legacy (w/ Mr. Nadler & Ms. Sullivan) and A Birthday Party for Sir Noël Coward (w/ Ms. Sullivan & Karen Kohler); Craig’s solo shows are: Stepping into Love: Harold Arlen in the Thirties; Change Partners: Life’s a Dance, which debuted at the Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room; and At Long Last Love: The Music & Lyrics of Cole Porter, which debuted at the Cafe Carlyle.

Craig has co-starred with ABC Daytime’s Catherine Hickland (OLTL) in four NYC nightclub engagements and two Disney World Super Soap Weekend finales; together with Marsh Hanson, they released the CD, Sincerely, Broadway (Baby Blues Records). He performed “Give My Regards to Broadway” on the CUNY-TV program New York in Song, whose video sale benefits the CSFA Scholarship Fund aiding children of 9/11 victims; he soloed on the MAC Award-winning Holiday CD ’Tis the Season (Harbinger Records); he appeared as a soloist in the 1964 edition of The Town Hall’s Broadway by the Year series (Harbinger Records); and he co-starred in the 92nd Street Y Lyrics & Lyricists production of With Mabel Mercer, the Words Came First. For five years, with Ms. Sullivan, Craig collaborated to present It Was a Very Good Year—annual tributes to Centennials—at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel and Weill Recital stages, at the National Arts Club, and at the Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room.

Craig has been a frequent singing ambassador for the Mabel Mercer Foundation’s mission of preserving the Classic American Popular Song idiom; he has appeared in Cabaret Conventions in East Hampton’s Guild Hall (three times), Palm Springs’ Annenberg Theater, San Francisco’s Herbst Theater, the Prince Music Center in Philadelphia, The Empire Room and The Park West in Chicago, the Greenwich Theater in London, and thirteen years in NYC—five at The Town Hall, and eight on the main stage of Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Outside of the entertainment industry and the ministry, Craig has extensive editorial and research experience: he compiled critical essays for Professor Harold Bloom’s Modern Critical Views series (Chelsea House Publishing); worked on indices for Yale University Press and Facts on File’s News Digest division; was part of the editorial team for Columbia University Press’ Granger’s Index to Poetry and the Concise Columbia Encyclopedia; and was an editor on Princeton Theological Seminary’s Dead Sea Scrolls publishing project with Professor James H. Charlesworth. Craig has several published articles in the peer-reviewed journal Pastoral Psychology, has just published Emerging as Affirmative Pastoral Caregivers Beyond Gender Binaries: Gender Creative Promise with Lexington Books, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, and will have an essay in the forthcoming Valor and Vulnerability: Pastoral Explorations of Intimacy, Grief, and Resilience among Boys and Men, coedited by Robert C. Dykstra and Ryan LaMothe for Cascade Books.

JEFF HARNAR is a multiple MAC, Bistro, and Broadway World Cabaret Award winning Director. He was recipient of The Noël Coward Foundation Cabaret Award, the 2022 Mabel Mercer Award, and was the 2022 Chicago Cabaret Professionals National Honoree. He has directed solo shows for Tovah Feldshuh and Rita Gardner, and Broadway World, MAC, and Bistro Award winning shows for Celia Berk, Josephine Sanges, Dawn Derow, Margo Brown, and Therese Lee. Jeff is also a multiple award-winning vocalist and recording artist. Please visit www.jeffharnar.com.

Jeffrey Carney is touring bassist for Barbra Streisand and jazz great Bobby McFerrin. He has performed with Stan Getz, Sting, James Taylor, Billy Joel, Andrea Bocelli, Elton John, and many more. Jeff is Principal bassist of the New York Pops Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. On Broadway, he has played first chair for Beauty and the Beast, Cyrano, The Secret Garden, Anything Goes, and Les Misérables. Studio/Film credits include Gemini Man, The Greatest Showman, HailCaesar!, Carol, Mr. Holmes, True Grit, Julie & Julia, The Good Shepherd, Secret Window, Shaft 2, The Producers, and many more. Jeff is a professor for The New School University’s Jazz and Contemporary Music school.

As a young pianist, Beth Ertz loved accompanying musical family and friends in local musicals, beginning a lifelong love of Broadway. When studying classical accompanying at the University of Southern California, at night she played in seedy night clubs, much to the dismay of her strictly classical professors. Mentored by composers and arrangers Johnny Mandel, Henry Mancini and Nelson Riddle, she caught the attention of film composer Elmer Bernstein. Beth’s Hollywood career began as orchestrator for Mr. Bernstein for comedies (Animal House, Airplane, Trading Places) and tender stories such as The Chosen and later some quirky films with Danny Elfman. She sees film composition as another form of accompanying, just with a bigger “piano”…the orchestra. Diverse arranging assignments have included Barbra Streisand, Willie Nelson, Placido Domingo, Stevie Wonder, producer David Foster, Pops orchestras, and the Academy Awards Show. In NYC, Beth has musically directed events at The Town Hall, Symphony Space, Lincoln Center, the York and tributes for Encompass New Opera Theatre honoring Chita Rivera, Danny Burstein, Sheldon Harnick, Marvin Hamlisch, Alan Menken and many others. As an accompanist, Beth has loved playing with Bette Midler, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kristin Chenoweth, Melissa Manchester, Karen Ziemba, Brian Stokes Mitchell and various dance companies. But there’s no one she enjoys collaborating with more than Craig Rubano, full of surprises, dipping into the classical realm, Cole Porter, modern musicals…all with his beautiful voice, heart, and soul.

Reviews for Take the Moment:

“Immense, unforced charm…pure joy!”

— Bart Greenberg, Cabaret Scenes magazine

“An exceptional performance!”

— Jacqueline Parker, Times Square Chronicles

“A smooth and polished show.”

— Rob Lester, BroadwayWorld

“Heartfelt, moving, funny, deeply personal, and yet, universal in appeal. His voice has become even richer, and it can be powerful or caressing.”

— Frank Dain, Cabaret Scenes magazine

“A virtuoso evening by a man with extraordinary talent and a valuable message.”

— Alix Cohen, Woman Around Town

“A voice from the heavens…intelligent, beautifully crafted.”

— Sue Matsuki, “Sue’s Muse,” NiteLife Exchange

“Thoughtful…a well-considered, concise narrative throughout…a very clever and brightly executed show…a great deal of delicious humor…superb lyric interpretation skills combined with a rich and flexible baritone of operatic proportions.”

— Marilyn Lester, Theater Pizzazz

“Craig Rubano’s homecoming was a joy to see and hear. The incredible talent he always possessed, now aged by life’s experiences, is ‘cabaret’ at its vintage best with a very fine bouquet!”

— Scott Barbarino, NiteLife Exchange

“I adored seeing Craig back on a cabaret stage with such a well-developed and paced show. He sounds fantastic and has stayed quite easy on the eyes. Totally charming. I really appreciated the spiritual under tones he brought to the performance.”

— Scott Barbarino, NiteLife Exchange

“Oh, yes. You’re in for a treat.”

— Greg Culling

“A masterclass in cabaret and, more importantly, life.”

— Bob O’Hare

“It was an AMAZING evening…moving, interesting, funny stories…world-class singing.”

— David Friedman

“Make a reservation and feel the love.”

— Ira Lee Collings

“He was on fire! Welcome back to a wonderful talent.”

— Lorna Dallas

“Transformational show! Craig’s singing is as glorious as ever, and his presentation is so true and revelatory, as cabaret at its best should be.”

— KT Sullivan

“I witnessed the miraculous re-entry of the divine Craig Rubano to the cabaret scene.”

— Tracy Rosten

“His talents and contributions to life are endless. Get thee there!!!”

— Terry Sims

“Just go!!!!!!”

— Karen Gutheil

“WOW! Craig Rubano’s show at the Beechman was a BANG! ZOOM! TO THE MOON! experience. Literally one of the best singers in town, and with a beautiful, upbeat message which we all certainly need.”

— Mardie Millet

“His voice is clear and rich, and his patter was perfectly done. Just the right mix of personal story and sense of humor.”

— Josephine Sanges

“Beautiful, beautiful man, artist, storyteller, spiritual teacher, student of life…incredible meal of a show—he was on fire, lives in that place of gratitude, that place of wonder…he performs everything in that moment, like it’s the very first time—and that is the whole point.”

— Meg Flather

Other reviews

New York

“Mr. Rubano has an intelligence and wit to match his robust baritone.”

— Stephen Holden, New York Times

“It’s always impressive when a performer slips the room on like a glove.”

— David Finkle, Back Stage

“A resounding legit voice.”

— Chip Deffaa, New York Post

“A voice one savors and remembers...a sensual, haunting instrument one could listen to for hours.”

— David Roberts, Theatre Reviews Limited

“Craig Rubano—how sweet the sound! Smooth, sexy and stunning!”

—Joe Franklin, “Down Memory Lane,” WOR 710 AM

“A beautifully crafted singular sensation.”

— Jeff Rossen, Cabaret Scenes Magazine

“He’s great!”

— Liz Smith, New York Post, NY Newsday

“Mr. Rubano is a theatrical baritone with considerable vocal heft. Projecting a cheerful bonhomie, he scrutinizes songs for the stories they tell.”

— Stephen Holden, New York Times

“When Rubano sings, all is right with the world; his full-bodied baritone is warm and expressive.”

— Barbara & Scott Siegel, TheaterMania

“Personable singer Craig Rubano has the kind of glorious, robust voice that enables him to give a classical touch to virtually everything he sings, and yet he manages to maintain a friendly intimacy with his audience. Rubano’s good looks and self-assuredness add to the overall effectiveness of his act, and the patter between numbers adds to the valentine-like charm the singer evokes. There are moments that particularly thrill, thanks to the considerable pleasure one derives from listening to his exhilarating voice. ln short, Rubano earns status as top-notch cabaret star.”

— William Wolf, Wolf Entertainment Guide

“Sophisticated crooner. Rubano is smooth and classy!"

— David Hurst, Next magazine

“The ruggedly good-looking vocalist enjoys a great voice and plays to his audience with comfort and refinement. When Craig Rubano sings, he nails the emotional setting of the song and the songwriter's intent beautifully. His voice is warm and ironic, poignant or commanding as the lyric demands, each number reflecting a dramatic discernment worthy of any number in a Broadway book show. Rubano's careful preparation and his sensitivity could provide a useful model for singers who wonder what it takes to hold an audience in your hands.”

— Peter Leavy, Cabaret Scenes Magazine

“He’ll give you enough heat and energy to get you through the winter doldrums. Rubano combines a performer's chops with an archivist’s enthusiasm for the material...a delight.”

— Mark Davis, The Advocate

“He is a favorite of audiences, critics and other performers. He has presence and passion and a sense of joy. lt all transmits.”

— Rob Lester, Talkin’Broadway.com

“Rubano is not to be missed. Cole Porter, eat your heart out.”

— New York Press

“I was in for a good ride—good stuff!”

— David Kenny, “Everything Old is New Again,” WBAI 99.5 FM

“Extraordinary vocals-full ranged and perfectly placed.”

— Stu Hamstra, Cabaret Hotline

“Does wonders for songs for which fans already have high expectations.”

— Gregg Shapiro, Next magazine

“An amiable song-and-snappy-patter guy.”

— David Finkle, Out magazine

“An appealingly shameless aural presence, with a dogged sweaty flair.”

— Michael Feingold, Village Voice

London

“Thoroughly uplifting.”

— Clive Davis, The London Times

"Craig Rubano is obviously well on the way…huge potential.”

— Musical Stages magazine, UK

“An excellent young talent…highly recommended.”

— Masquerade magazine, UK

Chicago

“A powerhouse baritone.”

— Misha Davenport, Chicago Sun-Times

"Plush vocals—his instrument has to be the envy of bass-baritones everywhere.”

— Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune

St. Louis

“Craig Rubano is living his dream!”

Rich Krushel, St. Louis Post Dispatch

“Gifted with moviestar good looks and a rich, beautiful voice.”

— Marianne Peri Sack, Il Pensiero

“A baritone who ranges from the reedy to the rich and from high to low, with sure dynamic control from a whisper to a Broadway belt.”

— Bob Wilcox, KDHX.org

“Craig Rubano is ebullient and unashamedly genuine in his communication with the audience...He’s having a hell of a good time up there and wants us to know he appreciates our response...He also boasts a supple light baritone, a remarkable ability to communicate the emotional core of every song, and wonderfully eclectic musical taste...He runs the emotional

gamut...supplements the more well-known tunes with obscure gems...Almost as fascinating as the songs themselves are the amusing personal anecdotes that dot the program...these little insights are part of what make cabaret such an irresistible art form."

— Chuck Lavazzi, KDHX.org

“Rubano’s evolved into a cabaret artist of sophistication, wit, grace, power and style. His patter is just right, informative yet interesting (learn from him, performers!), and his voice is perfection...His cabaret is one of the year’s highlights.”

— Christopher Jackson, EXP magazine

“Cabaret star Craig Rubano steps out with a memorable performance of meaning and nuance.

Rubano has certainly proved his ability.”

— Terry Perkins, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Pennsylvania and New Jersey

“Theater hunk Craig Rubano...has a high rich baritone that’s as attractive to the ear as his appearance is to the eyes.”

— Au Courant NewsMagazine

“A big-voiced singer with a truly marvelous instrument. He has great pitch and complete control of the lyric that he is singing. His phrasing is precise…one of the best cabaret performers to come along in a long time.”

— Richard Edgcomb, WDVRFM.org

“Music to our ears.”

— Bea Smith, NJ News-Record

San Francisco

“A powerful voice...beautiful, actually.”

— Bruce Bellingham, San Francisco Examiner

"A terrific voice. Charisma to spare. A delightful raconteur. Impeccable musical taste and vocal phrasing. Unassuming nice guy. Sweet, clarion baritone…exudes genuine warmth...a subtly personal treatment of lyrics...a bit of whimsical exuberance...eloquently understated...Such don’t miss evenings of truly pleasurable discovery are few and far between.”

— Gene Price, San Francisco Bay Times

“A handsome, witty young man with a robust baritone, Rubano knows his craft...fresh glorious arrangements and witty repartee—who could ask for more?”

— L. Pierce Carson, Napa Valley Register