Following her first full concert in Paris at Bal Blomet, a sold-out concert at the Crazy Coqs, and a stop at the Litchfield Jazz Festival, Melissa Errico was finally back where she belonged, on Broadway, at 54 Below, recalling memories from her many shows there, while paying tribute to her two principle musical mentors, Stephen Sondheim and Michel Legrand—the first one with mostly upbeat numbers such as the tongue-and-cheek “Can That Boy Foxtrot,” cut from Follies, “What More Do I Need” from Saturday Night, the more reflective “Take Me to the World,” and a closing medley with “Broadway Baby” and “Move On”; and the second one with “Watch What Happens” from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg starting her opening suite, the haunting “Windmills of Your Mind,” and on November 4th “I Will Wait For You” as a duet with Charles Bush. Apart from a bit of folk with “Night Ride Home” by Joni Mitchell, the rest of the evening was pure jazz and Broadway, with nods to the shows she starred in, “It’s Alright with Me” from Cole Porter’s High Society in 1998, “Wouldn’t It Be Lovely,” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to her Face” from Lerner and Lowe’s My Fair Lady and “Hurry, It’s Lovely Up Here” from Lerner and Lane’s On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, in which Melissa starred at the Irish Repertory Theatre in 2018.
Following this electrifying with Melissa at the top of her game, perfectly accompanied by Tedd Firth on piano, bass player David Finck, and drummer Mark McLean, I had the pleasure to ask her a few questions:
1) What are the differences between a London and a New York audience?
Hmmm, all audiences in the long run are the same – they crave romance, excitement, and want their hearts bent by the singer. But in my experience, if there is any difference, it’s surprising: the supposedly cool British audiences are very intimate—they treat you as a friend, come back for more shows, write and introduce themselves and greet you on your return. New York audiences tend to be more impressed by the glamour of distance. They want you to be a little bit of a star. But New Yorkers are my family, they could be scary but lately I feel so in love with my city and want to make everyone feel at home. We’ve all been through a LOT. I want all my shows to feel like family time. We’ve all grown up together and will stick together!
2) As a Broadway baby, did you feel the French audience was opening up to musical theatre when you recently played Paris?
Well, the French have their own rich traditions of musical theatre of course. Michel Legrand’s musical Le Passe Muraille was a big hit in Paris before it ever came to New York as Amour, with me taking the lead. But the language of the American standards is by now almost universal. I began singing “The Lady is a Tramp” in Paris and discovered that the audience was singing along! The American songbook is our classical music now – it crosses all borders.
3) Can you tell us more with your musical love affair with French composer Michel Legrand?
When I was a little girl, I would hear my father, a classical pianist, suddenly start playing this beautiful, mysterious, swooning music as a way of wooing my mother. And then I found out that it was the music of Michel Legrand. It was my introduction to erotic romance. (My father wouldn’t even tell me the plots of some of the movies the music came from, for fear of it being too soon for me.)
Then years went by, and I found myself cast as the leading lady in the one Legrand musical to reach Broadway, Amour. It was one of those rare times in life when your intimations of genius are entirely fulfilled by the reality. Michel was older by the time I knew him, but he overflowed with music like no other composer I ‘ve ever known. So much so that his favorite lyricists, the Bergmans, would sometimes have to force him to go back and play some beautiful melody he’d invented and quickly forgotten in his search for the next one! After Amour had closed, he insisted on recording an album of his music with me, which he wanted to be “oceanic and intime”, meaning with an enormous hundred-piece orchestra but with my voice like a clarinet in the midst taking all the plaintive leads. Legrand Affair, as it came to be called, turned into a long project – we were seven years from first note to release – but I’m immensely proud of it, and still sing the arrangements he gave me. The only thing that makes me prouder is that the New York Times asked me to write his eulogy when he died in 2019, and I did.
4) You recently appeared in London and Paris with French singer and tap dancer Isabelle Georges, how did the two of you met and decided to develop a double act?
We met in Paris (at my first ever national broadcast with France Musique) because we had both been muses of Michel’s, playing the same parts. We instantly had an amazing chemistry — in the dressing room of course! In our scanties! —we’re “deux grandes dames” (two tall women) and also big ambitious everywhere-at-once singers. That’s what we called our show, Deux Grandes Dames. Isabelle has a kind of delicious French gamine, pixyish quality that blends perfectly with my more romantic, lyric Italian kind. I think we make a perfect pair, whether dressed in Chaplinesque suits or sequined gowns. I can’t wait to do more shows with her. We may even record together – the great Marc Shaiman wrote us a duet about the perils of speaking French that we may set down soon.
Our recent concert was aired on Radio France before we had the most utterly wild cabaret night at the legendary Bal Blomet.
5) Following Sondheim Sublime you are now preparing a second album around Stephen Sondheim, what other side of the genius do you want to show?
OK. I won’t keep it a secret! The new album is called Sondheim in the City, and it’s a compendium of Steve’s songs about New York. It’s a more exterior, out-reaching kaleidoscopic album than the first one, which was all interior and (I hope) bewitching. I sing with a big band on many tracks on this one, and on some even with strings! It’s a kind of throwback to Ella Fitzgerald’s songbook albums, but it’s a chance for me to inhabit the many faces of the Sondheim Woman.
I have my repeat residency at Birdland Jazz Club in Feb in NYC where I’m officially releasing it! Feb 14-18 — worth a trip over from London or Paris!
6) Can we hope to see you again one day starring in a stage musical?
In recent years, I’ve been focused on one-woman cabaret and concert shows, in part because it’s easier with children and in part because that way I can make my own mini-dramas and tell my own stories without having to wait for a creative team to stop squabbling and write! Musical theater, it’s no secret, can be a hive of disagreements! Someone once said that the story of American musical theater is the story of Jewish men yelling at each other, and there’s some truth in that piquant description. But of course, as a musical actress I pine for a new show, and doigts croisés, the wonderful team of David Shire and Adam Gopnik promise to be brewing something medieval and romantic and new for me. More on that, too, soon, as well.
Broadwayguy 