Swing
When I finished the album Sondheim Sublime and the concerts that went with it—the passion project of a lifetime—I felt completely fulfilled but a little wrung out by the emotional demands of it—the detail, the depths, the Steve of it. Every time I sang Sondheim, something hit me deeply, like I was suddenly far offshore, seeing the bottom of certain seas where there is sometimes more emotion than even tears can contain. (And ecstasy, of course, bliss, dreams.) I wasn’t losing my mind—but I was singing about losing my mind every night.
Just then, a friend asked me to sing American songbook standards at his birthday party. He wanted a program of nothing except great American standards, fun fun fun, and maybe get people dancing. He rented a dance floor! I loved the idea and arranged to fall into the hands (and horns!) of a new swing group that the stylish and charming Australian (now New Yorker!) pianist Matt Baker put together for me. It was the perfect moment for this adventure. We went with classics–theater songs that had been so long off the stage and sung so often that they had become pop classics, almost like folk songs.
Once I started on a new path for this party, I found myself tapping my toes, snapping along, swinging my hips and my hair, and loving the feeling of these songs. Crying for joy! I’ve been singing some of these songs (“Rain and Shine,” “The Song Is You”) since I started out, and others are out for a first spin (“Satin Doll,” “They Can’t Take That Away from Me”). Oh, I mustn’t forget “Lady Is a Tramp,” and the wind in my hair. I call it the music of the permanent American party, the music our parents snuggled with, the songs on the radio when they were little, and their parents laughed and danced on a New Year’s Eve. (My parents met over “The Man I Love,” and here I am.)
We had a blast, the guests didn’t stop dancing… and at 1:00 am that night, Matt and I vowed it couldn’t be goodbye. Let’s just do it again! We decided to turn it into a permanent cabaret-concert, which we did with great success at New York’s Birdland Jazz Club and will keep on with all over America: Cry for Joy! (In fact, the great David Shire and my frequent collaborator Adam Gopnik wrote me a new theme song for the show with just that title.)
What joy? The joy of singing, the joy of finding wild moments with fellow musicians, and the joy of sharing. I’m here because of those songs, for those songs. I want to pass the party on.
– Melissa
Melissa Errico
Swings The Standards
What more do we need for a New York summer festival than the classics of the American songbook, sung under the stars on a summer night with a new edge and swing by a great singer? In this show, Melissa Errico will enlarge on a program that was already a huge success when she sang it pre-pandemic at Birdland: “Cry for Joy: Melissa Swings the Standards.” With a driving band behind her, she’ll sing from the classics of Gershwin, Porter, Kern, and Arlen, with special stops at the under-sung women writers she’s championed from the beginning of her career–including the two Dorothys, Parker, and Fields. It’s not a program without its own contemporary edge, celebrating “The permanent American party” of music in the best sense, and giving both singer and audience a chance to cry what President Biden calls “tears of joy” as we emerge from the hard year of lockdown. [She says that she’ll be “tapping my toes, snapping along, swinging my hips & my hair & loving the feeling of these songs. I’ve been singing some of these songs (“Rain and Shine”, “The Song Is You”)since I started out, and others are out for a first spin (“Satin Doll”, “They Can’t Take That Away from Me”). Oh, I mustn’t forget “Lady Is a Tramp,” and the wind in my hair. I call it the music of the permanent American party.”
Swing Lessons
with Billy Stritch
Together Again! Tony-award nominee Melissa Errico, the dazzling star of My Fair Lady, High Society, Dracula, White Christmas, Les Misérables and more, celebrates summertime with Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe, Stephen Sondheim, David Raksin, in tandem with the incomparable Cabaret and Jazz artist Billy Stritch. Every duo-cabaret promises to be something different, but SWING LESSONS really is—thanks to the glamour, sass, and class of the incomparable Melissa Errico and the irrepressible charm of Billy Stritch. Melissa comes from a Broadway background, Billy is a master of jazz. Together, they engage in a ‘teach me tonight’ tango, with Billy bringing the swing Melissa and Melissa lifting up the sublime in Billy, each challenging the other to a new high in musicianship. Still aloft from their debut together as a duo with their brand-new lively holiday show last winter, this dazzling friendship takes them both to new sides of their talents and passion for music. Singing from the American songbook (with a touch of Legrand, and a soupcon of Sondheim), and using the inimitable storyteller style, that has made her a favorite among New York Times contributors, Melissa will spin a few tales throughout the evening. She’ll even tell why she loves that man Billy so much, and how they both fell in love with music, and how these classic songs continue to unite us all. What’s more summer than a swing, either on a front porch or in an evening’s music? This midsummer’s dream of a concert promises to bring rocking joy to the entire family as we embrace the beauty and mischief of summertime.
“This pair of nightclub royalty who have admired one another for years put together a brand new show made up of Melissa’s familiar home of Broadway musicals set to Billy’s jazz/swing arrangements. The lady herself said, “I have, for a long time, lived on Broadway, but I live FOR jazz.” And live she did… Looking Back: It seemed unfathomable that two such luminaries of our NYC nightlife had not thought to do a show together, but since they finally did (and it was WORTH THE WAIT) those in the audience on that night got to see two pros make each other better through the work – if you can believe it. It’s called chemistry children, and these two found it by putting their very different energies in one bottle to make lightning.”
– Bobby Patrick, BroadwayWorld
Press
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BroadwayWorld Review | Published December 31, 2022
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