Nathan Lee Graham is an actor and singer. His roles in feature film include Todd in "Zoolander" and "Zoolander 2", Frederick Montana in "Sweet Home Alabama", Bernard on the FOX comedy series "LA to Vegas", and François in the Riverdale spin-off "Katy Keene". On the small screen, he originated the role of Peter in "The Comeback", and had guest starring roles on "Scrubs", "Absolutely Fabulous", and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit".
Graham's stage credits include the role of Phil D'armano in the original Broadway cast of the Tony Award and Grammy Award nominated "The Wild Party", and as Miss Understanding in the original Broadway cast of the Tony Award nominated "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". He received a Drama League Award nomination for the role of Rey Rey in the Off-Broadway production of "Wig Out" and won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Feature Performer in a Musical in "The Wild Party" Los Angeles Premiere in 2005. He earned a 2005 Best Classical Album Grammy Award for "Songs of Innocence and of Experience", as a soloist.
On June 20, 2016, Broadway Sings for Pride premiered its 6th anniversary benefit concert "Ovation" in New York City, at Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan. This milestone event was filled with singing (from pop to Broadway), stories, special celebrity guests, and more. The show honored Tyler Clementi Foundation and AIDS pioneer and activist Ruth Coker Burks. Broadway Sings for Pride is a multiple award-winning, non-for-profit organization that brings together Broadway talent, activists, and celebrities, to educate the public, raise awareness of the needs of LGBTQ+ youth, and support these young people, so that they may reach their full potential.
Graham performed the song "Summertime" during the benefit concert, where Shefik served as Videographer. "Summertime" is an aria composed in 1934 by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera "Porgy and Bess". The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel "Porgy" on which the opera was based, and Ira Gershwin.
The song soon became a popular and much-recorded jazz standard, described as "without doubt...one of the finest songs the composer ever wrote...Gershwin's highly evocative writing brilliantly mixes elements of jazz and the song styles of Blacks in the southeast United States from the early twentieth century".
Statistics for the number of recordings of "Summertime" vary by source, while older data is restricted to commercial releases, newer sources may include versions self-published online. The Jazz Discography in 2005 listed 1,161 official releases, ranking the song fourth among jazz standards. Joe Nocera in 2012 said there were "over 25,000" recordings. Guinness World Records lists the website's 2017 figure of 67,591 as the world record total.
Credits
- Videographer: Shefik
Last Updated: April 30, 2023
