Russ Lorenson explores the life and music of an American music legend in his new show, As Long As I’m Singin: Russ Lorenson Celebrates the Music of Bobby Darin. An innovative performer whose tragically brief life was often stranger than fiction, Bobby Darin worked his way from shady nightclubs to The Copacabana, where he smashed all attendance records, and wowed audiences with hits like “Splish Splash,” “Mack the Knife,” and “Beyond the Sea.”
A dynamic entertainer, Bobby had Top 10 hits in Rock 'n Roll, Jazz, Pop, Country, and Folk, moving effortlessly through each genre and making it his own. Not just a Grammy-winning recording artist, Bobby was also an award-winning composer, an Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning actor, and a music publishing mogul. His marriage to “America's Sweetheart” Sandra Dee broke young girls' hearts and made headlines around the world. Beset with illness from an early age, Bobby was driven to accomplish all he could in what he knew would be a brief life, and gave everything he had to be remembered "as a human being and as a great performer."
Russ Lorenson has established a reputation as one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s leading interpreters of jazz standards, with a sound and approach that place him at the intersection of Broadway, jazz, and pop – the very essence of the Great American Songbook. Jazz Review says that “Lorenson is not just a crooner covering the traditional Sinatra style or trying to be the next Connick; he is his own man.”
Nominated for a 2007 MAC Award by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs, Russ Lorenson’s passion for the stage started as a youngster, with a performing career that began at age seven in his home town of Philadelphia. As an actor he has appeared in award-winning musical productions with theatre companies throughout the US, and has toured with the National Theatre for Children. As a vocalist he has toured the US, UK and Europe, appearing in concert with such luminaries as Broadway stars Teri Ralston (Company, A Little Night Music, The Baker’s Wife), Karen Mason (Hairspray, Mamma Mia, Sunset Boulevard) and Dale Kristien (Phantom of the Opera), "Queen of Cabaret" Andrea Marcovicci, jazz diva Wesla Whitfield, and as the opening act for the legendary Eartha Kitt.
Lorenson is best known for his critically-acclaimed tribute to another American music icon in his show, Benedetto/Blessed: Celebrating the Life and Music of Tony Bennett. Lorenson’s tribute to the man whom Frank Sinatra called "the best singer in the business" has enjoyed sold-out runs across the country, including the Empire Plush Room, Jazz at Pearl's and The Rrazz Room in San Francisco, Sterling’s Upstairs in Los Angeles, Milwaukee’s Wilson Center for the Arts, and New York's famed Iridium Jazz Club.