Tony-award nominee Melissa Errico brings her holiday show Evergreen Holiday to Feinstein’s at Vitello’s December 21st & 22nd

Fresh from her Carnegie Hall debut last month, Tony-award nominee Melissa Errico brings her holiday show Evergreen Holiday to Feinstein’s at Vitello’s December 21st and 22nd. Accompanied by a jazz trio led by Randy Waldman, Melissa’s special guest Jon Lovitz will join in on the storytelling that has made Melissa a favorite New York Times contributor.

Thank you for taking the time for this interview, Melissa! How hard was it to pare down your choices from a plethora of holiday songs for Evergreen Holiday? What was your delineating criteria?

I LOVE holiday music, from sweet traditional yule-tide comfort songs to big Broadway classics and even crazy comedy songs, like Tom Lehrer’s “Hanukkah In Santa Monica.” One of the wistful highlights of the pandemic for me was a holiday show I did for the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, just me in a beautiful green gown and Tedd Firth in a mask, on a live stream, and I’ve kept close the list of songs that worked for me on that occasion. I want every song to be a song, not just a seasonal sound – something that has the kind of dramatic life I love. And I love to laugh! I’ll sing a few parodies of Christmas classics authored by my lyricist Adam Gopnik that are wild and I’ll even have a special comedy guest: the great Jon Lovitz! And is it terrible to say that I’d like it to be a sexy show, too? Well, I would: I bought a huge ‘kissing ball’ for our entryway – I have three teenage daughters; it’s not clear if there’s actually mistletoe in it but I bought it when I got the tree… I couldn’t resist the concept, and the mayhem it invites. I love the idea of making a little Christmas romance.

What was the first Christmas carol you learned as a child?

There’s a video, which I’ve posted unashamedly, of me singing “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”, at the age of five, with a muff on my hands and a sparkle in my eyes. My parents used to literally knock-on strangers’ doors and offer them a Christmas show: my brother Mike on trumpet, my Dad on piano, and me singing. Watching it now, I’m not sure how well I carry the tune, but I KNOW I carry the moment. A show girl from the get-go.

Will you be singing this in Evergreen Holiday?

I wasn’t planning to – but maybe I should. Naughty and nice is a saucy theme. It’s, well, evergreen.