Sam Gravitte stepped onto the stage at Stissing Center on Feb. 1, delivering a set of love songs that spanned nearly a century of American music. With Valentine’s Day approaching, he wasted no time setting the mood, opening with Stevie Wonder’s 1976 ballad “Love’s In Need of Love Today.”
“Hate’s goin’ ‘round, breaking many hearts / Stop it please before it’s gone too far,” Gravitte sang. “The force of evil plans to make you its possession / And it will if we let it destroy everybody.” Wonder’s message, written nearly 50 years ago, felt just as relevant today.
After the final notes of his opening song faded, Gravitte introduced himself, saying that a career in show business was not necessarily preordained — even though both his parents, Beau and Debbie Gravitte, are actors. Music, however, was a constant presence in Gravitte’s childhood, and in his early teens, he fell in love with the music of Broadway.
The handsome 29-year-old sang with the fresh energy of an artist excited about presenting a program of songs he loves. His vocal range easily handled the repertoire. Jacinth Greywoode, a composer who is also the music supervisor for the current Broadway show “The Cult of Love”, accompanied Gravitte with seamless piano playing. Greywoode complemented the songs with sensitive solo breaks on several numbers, exhibiting a natural connection with his piano.
With “Fly Me to the Moon,” which was first a hit for Kaye Ballard in 1954, and “Easy to Love,” written in 1934 by Cole Porter for the show “Anything Goes,” Gravitte next paid homage to music his parents loved. He went back even further in time with “Someone to Watch Over Me,” composed by George and Ira Gershwin in 1926.
Gravitte then spoke a bit more about his life. Following high school in Ridgefield, Conn., where he, of course, played leading roles in school productions, he attended Princeton, where he starred in theatrical shows and played football and lacrosse. In 2017, after graduating with a degree in anthropology, he began pursuing a career in theater.
Gravitte landed a role in the national touring company of “Wicked” and on Feb. 25, 2020, he made his Broadway debut in the role of Fiyero. Three weeks later the Covid crisis forced all of Broadway’s theaters to go dark. Gravitte told the Stissing Center audience that being back on stage in September 2021, when “Wicked” became one of the first shows to reopen, was one of the most moving moments of his life.
He then changed up the mood, singing “Maria” from “West Side Story” and “I’m Through With Love,” a jazz standard from the 1930s. He talked about the ancient roots of Valentine’s Day and gave three short readings from “The Parliament of Fowls,” a 700-line poem written more than 700 years ago by Geoffrey Chaucer that contains one of the earliest references to the idea that St. Valentine’s Day is a special day for lovers. This was the comic interlude of the performance as he read each short verse in a different accent as directed by Greywoode: Scottish, Australian, and Italian.
The Spice Girls’ song “If You Wanna Be My Lover” stepped up the pace, followed by “What Do I Need With Love” from “Thoroughly Modern Millie.” Before his encore — “Being Alive” from “Company” — Gravitte finished his set with Leon Russell’s “A Song For You,” leaving everyone looking forward to Feb. 14.
“I love you in a place where there’s no space or time / I love you for my life, you are a friend of mine / And when my life is over, remember when we were together/ We were alone and I was singing my song for you…”