By Donald H. Sanborn III

Princeton Festival has presented “Sondheim In the City with Melissa Errico.” As the title suggests, the stage and film star performed a program of songs — the majority of which comment on life in New York City — by Stephen Sondheim.

The concert, which took place June 8 at 4 p.m. in the Festival’s performance tent on the grounds of Morven Museum & Garden, featured selections from two of Errico’s solo albums. Most of the selections appear on Sondheim In The City (2024). A few others are heard on Sondheim Sublime (2018). 

In between songs, Errico recounted fascinating stories about Sondheim — including some of her experiences and correspondence with the legendary composer and lyricist — as well as her family’s history, predominantly that of her great-aunt Rose, who performed for early 20th century producer Florenz Ziegfeld. The evening was framed as a metaphorical tour of Sondheim’s New York apartment.

Errico is a Tony Award-nominated actress and singer. In addition to numerous recordings, and concerts that include collaborations with over 40 symphony orchestras, she has starred in Broadway productions of My Fair Lady, High Society, Anna Karenina, White Christmeas, Dracula, and Les Misérables.

Television appearances include a starring role in Central Park West. Beside her work as a performer, Errico has authored articles for several outlets, including the New York Times and the Huffington Post.

For the Princeton Festival concert, Errico was accompanied by Musical Director Tedd Firth (piano), David Finck (bass), and Eric Halvorson (drums).

Outfitted in a black dress covering a white blouse, along with a hat whose importance would be explained later in the concert, Errico opened the program with the vivacious, defiant “Everybody Says Don’t” from Anyone Can Whistle (1964). Errico’s considerable vocal talents were immediately on display, along with her ability to punctuate a performance with lively choreography; she illustrated the line “Sometimes you have to start small, climbing the tiniest wall” by steadily raising her hands (one on top of the other).

Errico removed her hat for the gentle “Not While I’m Around” from Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979). This was the first of many numbers characterized by beautiful sustained notes. In a speech following the selection, Errico cited “Not While I’m Around” as an example of Sondheim’s work being a “protective force” (despite the song having been written for a show in which a barber murders his customers).

This first monologue was punctuated by a comic bit in which Errico tries to find a place for a bouquet of pink flowers she has just discovered on the stage (where they end up staying). She observes that the flowers match the one “in my top hat!” The flowers, like the top hat, prove to be important later in the show.

Elsewhere, Errico explained how Sondheim told her to perform his material in concert. He advised her to perform the melody as written for the first half of each song, then to “jazzify” the second half however she likes.

Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, Errico described herself as the “high priestess of the cult” of Sondheim admirers, and described “Somewhere” from West Side Story (1957) as her parents’ “theme song.” She also noted Sondheim’s early background — his acrimonious relationship with his mother (who infamously wrote in a letter that her one regret was giving birth to him); and by contrast, his rewarding friendship and mentorship with lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.

The mention of Hammerstein was a cue for Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music (1959). Errico’s delivery of Hammerstein’s lyrics was preceded by a parody in which she exuberantly declared, “Sondheim in Princeton’s my favorite thing!” Errico played with the melody’s triple meter, pointedly lengthening key phrases.

The unabashed joy of this sequence was contrasted by the following piece, the plaintive “Take Me To The World” from the eerie television musical Evening Primrose (1966). Although the song is a ballad, Errico — aided by Halvorson’s gentle but steady drumbeats – keeps the tempo moving to preserve a sense of restlessness, adding a lovely bit of syncopation to the phrase “a world where I can be alive.”

Next was a trilogy of wry but affectionate songs about life in New York City. A sweeping but introspective piano solo introduced the “Who Wants to Live in New York?” segment of “Opening Doors,” a complex, extensive number from Merrily We Roll Along (1981). “What More Do I Need?” from Sondheim’s (initially unproduced) debut offering, Saturday Night (1955); and the driving “Another Hundred People” from Company(1970). For the latter, Errico entertainingly mimed having several phone conversations at once, adding motivation to the curt line, “Look, I’ll call you in the morning or my service will explain.”

Multiple monologues were devoted to the story of Errico’s Aunt Rose, whose father sold top hats (hence that part of the costume). A recounting of Aunt Rose’s experience performing in Ziegfeld’s revue, The Midnight Frolic, provided a cue for a risqué Sondheim number cut from Follies (1971), “Can That Boy Foxtrot!”

To Errico, Sondheim is the “poet laureate of longing.” Two wistful examples of this are “Good Thing Going” (from Merrily We Roll Along), a ballad that borrows melodic material from “Opening Doors,” and is given a brief, wordless vocalize by Errico; and the title song from Anyone Can Whistle. Tempo and mood then were altered, as Errico closed the first half with the rousing, affable “Broadway Baby” from Follies.

Part two brought a costume change: Errico now sported a sparkly silver dress, punctuated with a wrap that (Errico told us) belonged to Aunt Rose. The second half opened with “Uptown/Downtown,” a cut song from Follies that relates the social ascent of “a dame named Harriet.” The intricately rhymed song, which juxtaposes the past against the present, is an apt choice for Errico’s concept for her concert.

Gypsy (1959), which has lyrics by Sondheim and music by Jule Styne, is enjoying a Broadway revival that opened last December. Errico included “Small World” (the only song in the concert not to have both music and lyrics by Sondheim) from that show as a tribute to star Audra McDonald, whom she (and many others) assumed would win this year’s Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. (As it turned out, the prize went to Nicole Scherzinger for her performance in another revival, Sunset Boulevard.)

The concert had many highlights, but Errico managed to top herself with a showstopping rendition of “Getting Married Today,” a song from Company (1971), in which wedding guests’ celebratory excitement (and that of the groom) is juxtaposed against the bride’s frantic nervousness. Errico not only sung the roles of both the guest and the bride, giving each a distinctive voice (with Firth delivering the groom’s dialogue), but heightened the hectic mood by taking a veil on and off. The flowers that were moved earlier in the concert became the bridal bouqet. Errico quipped that Sondheim was the first writer to bring “a panic attack” into a musical.

We heard two other songs from Company, a show that an audience member cited as a favorite early in the concert. One was “Being Alive,” described by Errico as a song of “renewal” and “endurance.” The other, “an ambivalent song about ambivalence,” was “Sorry-Grateful.” The theme of ambivalence also pervades “Nice Town, But,” a song Sondheim wrote at age 18.

Errico has a distinctive voice with a pleasing vibrato. Although she is a soprano, the majority of the songs demonstrated that she has a strong lower range as well. The second half included two songs that were not New York-themed, but still were valuable in allowing us to savor her technique and phrasing. One was the beloved “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music (1973), which was written for a character who is an actress (another theme of the concert). The other was the inspirational “Move On” from Sunday in the Park with George (1984).

In a monologue discussing the latter, Errico recounted her experience being given a tour of Sondheim’s NYC townhouse. She had a realtor give her a tour, presenting herself as a potential buyer for property, which was valued at $7 million. In the laundry room was a poster for Sunday, along with Sondheim’s graduation certificate from the military school his mother forced him to attend.

This writer wishes that Errico had included another song from Sunday in the Park with George, which appears on Sondheim Sublime: “Children and Art.” In that reflective ballad, the contemporary artist’s grandmother points to Seurat’s painting and tells him, “This is our family tree.” It would have corresponded nicely with the theme of another art form — musical theater — linking Errico with Aunt Rose.

Errico concluded the performance with an introspective ballad from Anyone Can Whistle, “With So Little to Be Sure Of,” which she describes as “apropos” to current events. The song is equally apropos to Errico’s exquisite, energetic, and informative concert. Despite lasting about two hours and needing an intermission, the performance brought heightened poignance to a lyric line that contemplates “Everything that’s over too fast.”