Actor, Singer & Cabaret Performer
2024 NYC BISTRO AWARD WINNER – Musical Comedy Performer
-Bistro Awards, New York City
GETTING TO NOËL YOU
Upper Hutt’s own Jason Henderson brings home this award-winning cabaret comedy of story and song.
Noël Coward’s witty, erudite and funny songs are re-framed for the 21st century.
TOP TEN CABARET SHOWS OF 2023
– Times Square Chronicles
NEW YORK CITY, LONDON, AND NOW AT LAST – NEW ZEALAND
HOMECOMING PERFORMANCE:
GETTING TO NOËL YOU
with West End Musical Director Mark W Dorrell at the piano
26 April 2025
WHIRINAKI Whare Taonga, 836 Fergusson Dr, Upper Hutt, NEW ZEALAND
reviEwers Say:
“… it would not be off the mark to say that the entire performance is pretty darn well perfect.”
Stephen Mosher – BroadwayWorld.com
“The show is a low-key triumph and marks the ascendance of a new and hopefully lasting star in the cabaret firmament.”
Gerry Geddes – BistroAward.com
“Henderson matched the master in drollery and badinage, and with perfect timing.
Marilyn Lester – NiteLifeExchange.com
His narrative was brilliantly constructed — clever, witty, literate and funny as can be. Yet, lurking beneath the surface were layers of seriousness…”
“Just when I thought there was virtually nothing new to look forward to in cabaret, along comes this charming young fellow from New Zealand who wowed everyone who saw his tribute to Noël Coward… ”
Jacqueline Parker – Times Square Chronicles (2023)
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Bart Greenberg – Cabaret Scenes (2023)
It’s a happy surprise in cabaret when an artist and a saluted composer blend together so well that the pairing seems inevitable.
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“Noël Coward is notoriously difficult to do justice. Young New Zealander Jason Henderson, however, does well in representing Coward’s wry, salty, deadpan attitude in his cabaret show Getting to Noël You. Weary resignation is replaced by the ingenuous, non-plussed reactions of a serial office temp.”
Alix Cohen – Cabaret Scenes Magazine, March/April issue 2024
Cabaret BIOGRAPHY
Jason Henderson was awarded the 2024 Bistro Award – Musical Comedy Performer and was nominated 2024 Male Vocalist at the MAC Awards (Manhattan Association of Cabarets) this season for his cabaret show, Getting To Noël You in New York City.
The show opened the 2024 Long Beach Cabaret Festival and has also played in the UK at The Pheasantry – one of London’s famed supper clubs.
Created with Musical Director Christopher Denny and Director Barry Kleinbort, Getting To Noël You has been critically acclaimed – listed in the ‘Top 10 Cabaret Shows of 2023’ – Times Square Chronicles.
In New York City, over multiple repeat performances at the storied New York cabaret institution Don’t Tell Mama, critics have been unanimous in their praise:
Broadway World: “…the entire performance is pretty darn well perfect.“
“…one of Coward’s top interpreters…” raved BistroAward.com as it proclaimed “…the ascendance of a new and hopefully lasting star in the cabaret firmament.”
Cabaret Scenes agreed: “It’s a happy surprise in cabaret when an artist and a saluted composer blend together so well that the pairing seems inevitable.”
Jason was nominated Most Promising Emerging Artist at the 2016 New Zealand Fringe Festival where he performed I think you’ll like this… and debuted Cake Tea & Courtship: Songs of the 1920’s and There’s Nothing on TV which he also toured to the 2016 Dunedin Fringe Festival.
With famed New Zealand pianist Terence Dennis, he performed Coward in the Office at Arts Festival Dunedin, 2016
In 2015 Jason made his Cabaret debut in Dunedin, New Zealand with his one-man show I think you’ll like this… The Star reviewed: “Henderson was likeable indeed in an original show filled with self-deprecating humour and music from shows, films and even oratorio.”
Jason is proud to be a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse (class of ’23). He holds a Master of Music (awarded with distinction) in Contemporary Voice – University of Otago, is a former member of the New Zealand Opera Chorus (2012-2016), and an alumna of five New Zealand Singing Schools, the St. Louis Cabaret Conference and The Circle in the Square Theatre School summer workshop.
Jason is based in New York City.
Graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse
Jason is proud to be a recent graduate of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, and a member of the extraodinary Class of ’23.
Concluding two-years of full-time acting study in New York City, Jason performed the role of Argan in Molièr’s The Imaginary Invalid on stage at the Neighborhood Playhouse.
VIEW JASON’S GRADUATION SHOW REELReview quotes
“Noel Coward is notoriously difficult to do justice. Young New Zealander Jason Henderson, however, does well in representing the artist’s wry, salty, deadpan attitude.”
Alix Cohen – Cabaret Scenes Magazine
“The singer has his own dry wit and a way with a punch line. His comic timing is sharp, and his script has some truly funny lines.”
Mark Dundas Wood – BistroAwards.com
“The familiar Coward brand of speak-singing comes naturally to him, though he doesn’t go overboard with it.”
Mark Dundas Wood – BistroAwards.com
“Enunciation is nonchalantly pristine.”
Alix Cohen – WomanAboutTown.com (NYC)
“Henderson was likeable indeed…” “Bravo.”
Brenda Harwood – The Star, Dunedin NZ
“…there is something in Jason Henderson; and that is one wonderful voice.“
Joana Simmons – TheatreView (NZ)
“Seriously though, there is something unique Jason Henderson can bring to the theatre. It has to do with the writing and devising of the material as well as a superb stage presence. It’s hard to capture this ‘something’ in words.”
Michael Gilchrist – TheatreView (NZ)
“This performer’s strength is his ability to communicate with the audience, to convey the songs and the story – and, of course, to devise a thoroughly charming show.”
Michael Gilchrist – TheatreView (NZ)
“Cake, Tea & Courtship is an endearing dance of romance through the music of the ‘Roaring Twenties’.”
Jo Hodgson – TheatreView (NZ)
“…his mellifluous voice … which is totally suited to this music…”
PREVIOUS SHOWS
Dunedin Fringe Festival
New Zealand Fringe Festival
New Zealand Fringe Festival
Various Festivals and Venues
New Zealand Fringe Festival
Dunedin Fringe Festival