Melissa's Biography

Melissa is one of the most versatile women to have come out of this Broadway's young generation, proving herself both a great interpreter of classic musicals and modern music alike, as well as a gifted recording artist and film/television presence.  She has starred in seven Broadway musicals and released two major solo cds, one in 2008 with a third ready for release.  She has been called everything from "divine" to "the voice of enchantment" to "one of the most valuable assets of the musical theater" by the NY TIMES as well as "incandescent" (Daily News) and "blessed with every attribute a grand dame of Broadway requires: star power, voice, looks, ability, personality, technique. An aphrodisiac, as it were, that galvanizes a musical into life." (Clive Barnes).  "Our most earthy and soulful ingenue...  She both sparkles and is unmannered."  (USA Today)  Her recordings have been praised as "intimate exhalations, sung with her heart-on-sleeve" (Billboard) and "a classy classic sound, with taste and imagination" (Washington Post) and "...ethereal, gorgeous, elegant, popular.  Delivered with inward emotion and real artistry"  (NY TIMES). 

Melissa won a Tony-nomination for Best Leading Actress in the Broadway musical AMOUR, composed by multi-Oscar-winning French composer Michel Legrand (Yentl), her musical idol, and someone who has gone on to create/conduct and orchestrate a solo pop album for her with producer Phil Ramone (cd cover on this page) for an upcoming release.  Michel has only made a handful of solo albums for singers, and they include Barbra Streisand, Sarah Vaughn and Johnny Mathis.  AMOUR happily reunited Melissa with author/director James Lapine as Melissa starred in The Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration with Raul Esparza in SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE.  

Melissa's big break was as Cosette in LES MISERABLES when she was only 18, for which she took a leave of absence from Yale University and returned to graduate with high honors and an art history/philosophy degree.  That year, she went on to star as Eliza Doolittle in Howard Davies' daring and unusual revival of MY FAIR LADY on Broadway, and was called "beguiling" in the opening sentence of the NY Times review.  Melissa revived her spunky and political portrayal of Eliza in 2003 opposite John Lithgow in Los Angeles, where she starred in 2006 opposite Jeremy Irons in CAMELOT and the next year in SOUND OF MUSIC.  Her witty sensual portrayal of Venus at City Center in Weill's ONE TOUCH OF VENUS took NYC by storm ("an overnight sensation! a star is born"- NY Times).  She has a long resume of Broadway and off-Broadway starring credits, has won acclaim in plays by Shaw, Wilde and more (see THEATER section); and is a regular part of NY's nightlife, singing at the premier hotels like The Carlyle and The Alonguin with her jazz-inflected cabaret evenings.  She has sung on many of America's most esteemed concert halls as well as on smaller stages and readings supporting developing new modern musicals.  Since becoming a new mother (to Victoria in 2006), Melissa has been welcomed on symphony tours all over the country and made an acclaimed London debut in the summer 2008 (while pregnant with twins!) with the Royal Philharmonic at The Palladium Theater with Angela Lansbury in celebration of Jerry Herman, a concert she reprised to great acclaim at The Kennedy Center in March 2009 with the National Symphony.  She has toured with such conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, and concert artists like Brian Stokes Mitchell and Michael Feinstein.

Childhood:

Melissa was born in Manhattan where her family lived several years before moving to Manhasset, Long Island. In grammar school, actually kindergarten, she met her now-husband Patrick McEnroe who was her older brother's best friend. Also about this time, age 5, she took her first ballet lesson, but the next year discovered cartwheels, and began to train in gymnastics. While growing up, Melissa had her sights set on a run as a competitive gymnast, and though she did compete in regionals, a knee weakness made this impossible. Melissa got her first taste of acting when she was asked to step in for sick Brownie and play a cockroach in the local Girl Scout's musical "La Cucaracha."

An arts camp solidified Melissa's interest in the theater, and also a trip to see ON YOUR TOES on Broadway when she was 11 years old. To see Natalia Makarova light up the stage dancing to steamy jazz rhythms was enough to inspire her for life!

From that point on, much of Melissa's life was spent on the Long Island Rail Road, as she commuted to the city for lessons in dance and voice. Eventually, she auditioned for such shows as the original LES MISERABLES and TV's Junior Star Search. Melissa joined a teen performance group and sang at hospitals, old age homes, Bloomingdale's, Central Park and once in the middle of Port Authority Bus Terminal. She participated in school plays, and by the end of high school, was dancing with Lee Theodore's "American Dance Machine," a professional dance company. She spent a summer as an apprentice at a fringe theater at the Kings Head Pub in London, helping out backstage, learning about costume design, being a barmaid and a spotlight operator for late-night comedy acts; she interned with The New York Stage and Film Co., spending a summer performing the role of Martha in Frank Wedekind's controversial play "Spring Awakening," starring David Strathairn.

During her freshman year at Yale, Melissa won the role of Cosette in LES MISERABLES.  She studied acting at Oxford in a Shakespeare and Chekhov program. Melissa withdrew from the Yale Drama graduate school when she was cast as Kitty in the Broadway musical ANNA KARENINA at Circle in the Square.  Her regular coaches and teachers in NYC are Harold Guskin and voice teacher Joan Lader. 

Melissa has gone on to star on Broadway again and again in MY FAIR LADY, HIGH SOCIETY, AMOUR, DRACULA and WHITE CHRISTMAS in the Rosemary Clooney role, been in many hit plays by Wilde, Shaw and Wally Shawn off-Broadway, including the current acclaimed CANDIDA, and appeared in television and film, playing a series lead in CBS's "Central Park West" by Darren Star.  Her debut album BLUE LIKE THAT (2003) was produced by industry great Arif Mardin for Capitol Records/Manhattan /EMI and released internationally, winning genuinely amazing reviews by the music industry welcoming her into a new milieu.  Her second studio recording in 2008 was in celebration of new motherhood, a soothing collection of standards and lullabies called LULLABIES AND WILDFLOWERS for VMG/Universal Records, produced by rising star Rob Mathes. This delayed her third solo recording (recorded 2005-2006) with Michel Legrand and produced by the legendary Phil Ramone, which is slated for an upcoming release. She is married to Patrick McEnroe, tennis player, commentator and US Davis Cup team captain. They live in Manhattan with their 3 yr old daughter Victoria and twins Diana and Juliette.

Melissa comes from a very close and artistic Italian family, you could call them eccentric. For more on Mike, Melanie, Mom and Dad, come over to OUR HOUSE.

Lucky to know them, and hear their stories, Melissa thanks her MENTORS.