The expression “Off the Top” often refers to how someone wants their hair cut. Or it could be what your agent and manager take from your pay for a job they secured for you. In the case of Broadway veteran Jason Kravits, Off the Top refers to the evening of improvised cabaret he’ll be performing. Based on audience suggestions, Kravits, who appeared on Broadway in The Drowsy Chaperone, Sly Fox and Relatively Speaking, will combine his wit and musical prowess to create songs made up both on the spot and off the top (of his head). The show takes place on Thursday Upstairs at Vitellos in Studio City.
In a 2017 interview with the New York Times, Kravits revealed that he asks audience members to fill out questionnaire with categories like locations, items, text messages and more. He pulls from those and other suggestions to improvise with his three-piece band the songs from each of the shows.
He said in that interview, “I’m telling the life story of the most famous person you’ve never heard of.”
Kravits has been doing Off the Top in between theatre gigs (The Golden Apple) and television/film (The Kominsky Method, Curb Your Enthusiasm) appearances for nearly four years. The show is very popular in New York where it has run consistently.