Ahead of her Music Mondays concert, the Broadway star explains why paying tribute means celebrating originality, not imitation
As part of its Music Mondays series, Tony Award-nominated Broadway performer Melissa Errico returns to Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor on Monday, August 17, at 8 p.m. with “The Streisand Effect: Melissa Sings Barbra,” a concert celebrating the music and enduring influence of Barbra Streisand. She will be joined by pianist Billy Stritch, a longtime musical collaborator of Streisand, and a quartet. In advance of the show, Errico recently offered a little insight into the music and her feelings for the legendary singer who made it famous.
Tell me about your earliest memory of hearing Barbra Streisand sing.
Barbra really walked into my psyche through “Yentl.” Even though it told the story of a Jewish world so different from my own Italian immigrant family, I felt an immediate kinship with it. Was it the romanticism? The longing? The yearning to become who you’re meant to be? Whatever it was, I recognized something profound.
She seemed to belong to an entirely different artistic universe — not Broadway exactly, not pop music, but something that felt like pure art. She was always, in my mind, set apart.
As I grew older, I realized she wasn’t simply singing songs — she was reinventing them. She gave every lyric a point of view. She carried ideas inside the sheer beauty of her sound, so that thought and emotion became inseparable. As a young actress, that fascinated me because I discovered that songs could be acted, not just sung. That realization has stayed with me throughout my career.
Was she one of your vocal heroes when you were beginning in the business?
Honestly, no. She was so singular that I didn’t even dare try to emulate her. She seemed almost beyond imitation. Instead, I admired her from a distance, the way you admire a mountain — you don’t think about becoming it.
Only later did I realize that the real lesson Barbra offers isn’t how to sing like her. It’s how to become more completely yourself. That’s the gift she gave every artist who came after her. She made individuality seem not only possible, but essential.