Sondheim in the City Reviews
The critics are raving!
“Sondheim in the City,” Melissa Errico’s tribute to Sondheim’s urbanity, feels like a New York house tour of thrill and heartbreak. In songs like the jangly “Another Hundred People,” the exuberant “What More Do I Need?” and the dry, disappointed “It Wasn’t Meant to Happen,” Errico, one of Sondheim’s deepest-hearted yet lightest-touch interpreters, evokes both the city and cabaret style at its best. (She’ll be singing the program at 54 Below in May.) On the pristine recording you can almost hear the martini glasses clink — and shatter.”
“With Sondheim In The City comes a short film for her version of ‘Good Thing Going’ from his magnum opus, Merrily We Roll Along. Drawing on Annie Hall (her fashion certainly takes a cue from Diane Keaton’s Oscarwinning role) and French new wave, the dramatic ‘Good Thing Going’ mini movie reflects on the dissolution of a romance between an actress and her director. Errico’s phrasing imbues the tale with the bittersweet sense that perhaps this relationship was bound to fail from the start — but still worth mourning.”
—Joe Lynch
‘Sondheim in the City’ takes the Musical Theatre compilation album to a new level.
Highlights include the opening track ‘Dawn’, originally written in 1992 for the unproduced movie musical Singing Out Loud, which perfectly evokes a crisp morning walking the streets of New York – the most successful arrangement on the album. ‘Opening Doors/What More Do I Need?’ combines the numbers from Merrily We Roll Along and Saturday Night respectively – the opening section is lightly orchestrated to the energetic ‘What More do I Need?’, which sees Errico at her most fiery – I would challenge you not to bop along! ‘Anyone Can Whistle’ is simple on paper, yet it takes great skill to make it feel as intimate and meaningful as Errico does here.
The others stars of this album are the arrangements by Tedd Firth and Rob Mathes. You’d think these have always been jazz standards rather than Broadway numbers. This is a jazz/Musical Theatre album that is sure to be a favourite of fans of either genre while also staying true to the source material.
“Melissa Errico is the ‘Sondheim Woman’ in Sondheim In The City. Devoted to Stephen Sondheim’s songs about New York – from the beginning of his career to its climaxes – Melissa’s latest album highlights Sondheim’s artistry while she inhabits one leading lady after another. From uptown to downtown and from sophisticated skyscraper heights to naïve basement depths, Sondheim In The City is a celebration of New York and its legendary musicaltheatre composer from the extraordinary Broadway star that Billboard magazine calls the ‘premier Sondheim interpreter.’”
“Over the years, she’s managed the transition from musical ingenue of the Broadway stage to cabaret star with unique intelligence and grace – and it shows with the lovely confidence she exudes when holding court and the ease with which she wields her rich voice.”
“’Emotional, authentic, stirring, and gracious with sophisticated interpretations,’ is what I called Errico’s romantic, inward-turning Sondheim Sublime (released in 2018). Now, her new tribute to Broadway’s greatest songwriter, Sondheim In The City, changes tone to offer us a more outwarddriven, kaleidoscopic street fair of New York scenes and moments – summoning back to life the poetic vision of a man who once confessed that his entire creative life had been spent in a twenty-block radius of Manhattan.”
“Errico’s warmth and maturity are pervasive. Her lyric interpretation of the lyrics comes from experience. Songs that have quite often arrived upset are here tempered with perspective. Expectations are fewer, appreciation greater. Errico doesn’t sound insensitive; she sounds fortified. There’s even a touch of sophisticated ennui. ‘Dawn’ (from the unproduced film, Singing Out Loud) arrives on effortless long notes with vibrato tails. Bruce Harris’ evocative, muted trumpet adds a patina of noir. A medley of ‘Opening Doors’ (Merrily We Roll Along) and ‘What More Do I Need?’ (Saturday Night) resonates with recollection. It opens with Firth’s tender piano, then swings as if to say “that was then, this is now.” Her stop/start phrasing almost giggles. ‘Take Me to the World’ (Evening Primrose) wafts in on Matt Munisteri’s deft guitar and Lewis Nash’s supple percussion. Firth’s piano adds dappled shadows. ‘Can That Boy Foxtrot!’(cut from Follies) is here, for possibly the first time, a foxtrot! Instead of unbridled heat, we hear the admiration expressed by a woman who’s been around the block. Imagine Vera Simpson in Pal Joey singing it about Joey. (Errico could play that role.) ‘Anyone Can Whistle’ (Anyone Can Whistle) is as unfussy and limpid as its aspiration. ‘Good Thing Going’ (Merrily We Roll Along) is a slow stroll. Her phrasing makes it seem as though she’s conjuring up specific moments. She’s melancholy, earnest, resigned. ‘Uptown, Downtown’ (cut from Follies) is sophisticated, almost churlish. The brass punctuates. Errico could be performing as one of Truman Capote’s Swans. ‘It Wasn’t Meant to Happen’ (cut from Follies) features the same urbanity. Octave changes feel like pricking thorns. The song is rueful. ‘Being Alive’ (Company) does not, as is common, painfully swell to the rafters. It’s a recognition of a life with perhaps a touch of advice. Melissa Errico knows who she is now, and it shows.”
“You might think Ms. Errico’s strongest asset is her beauty, meaning both sonic (those amazing chops) and visual (that face which, despite her own protestations in self-penned articles in The New York Times, would still empower her to play ingenue roles into her 50s), but in actuality, it’s her irrepressible enthusiasm. She loves New York in all its facets and, in mixing the highs and the lows, the glorious contradictions, Ms. Errico gives us the Great City, warts and all, which is really the only way it’s worth singing about. In fact the imperfections are an asset, not a liability; a feature, not a bug, part of the reason why we can’t even begin to imagine living anywhere else. No one knew that better than Stephen Sondheim, and Melissa Errico knows it too. Start spreading that news sometime soon.”
“Errico is widely recognized as among the premier interpreters of Sondheim’s songs. She has all of the assets needed to achieve this, a glorious voice, unfailing intelligence, the musical theater experience to dig into the lyrics and perform them with the flair of an actress, and in this instance, a love for New York City that imbues each selection with an emotional depth that is enhanced by her affection for the Big Apple.
Throughout her performance, Errico emphasized the contrasts that exist in New York City, the highs and lows, the appealing and the unappealing, and noted how Sondheim was a master at capturing these dichotomies. Errico has done an exceptional job of culling the many songs by Sondheim that could have warranted inclusion in her program to present a vision of the City that covers the spectrum of realities that comprise the essence of New York City, and reflect why so many have an intense love affair with the City.
One aspect of any Errico show is her informative connective commentary in which her warmth and sparkling sense of humor shine through consistently. Errico spoke expansively about her grandmother’s sister Rose who became a Ziegfeld Follies girl.
As a finale, Errico chose a song that she found on a tape of unused songs privately recorded by Sondheim, ‘Nice Town, But–.’ This put an exclamation point on the care and depth she employed in researching the extensive Sondheim output. Having performed in several Sondheim shows, Errico developed a personal relationship with the composer that, while only occasional, deeply affected her choice of material through much of her career. This was evident throughout her thoroughly engaging program. Keep your eyes open for future opportunities to see Errico perform this material. Adding the album to your music library is highly recommended.”
“The wonderful thing about Melissa Errico is that her intellect and refinement are so much a part of who she is that she doesn’t have to dress it up – all she has to do is bring it into the room. Also, all she has to do is adorn those qualities with the right colleagues. Tedd Firth. Michel Legrand. Adam Gopnik. Stephen Sondheim. In Sondheim In The City, featuring Mr. Firth’s fine jazz treatments for songs from not-quite-exclusively Manhattanbased musicals, Melissa Errico has captured the feel of the Metropolitan lifestyle that Stephen Sondheim very clearly adored, and wanted to bring to life in his stories. The listener of the music of Melissa’s burg will feel the concrete beneath their feet, envision the lights of the horizon line, and live (for 57 sublime minutes) inside of the most magical reveries of the city… Producer Rob Mathes and Concord Theatricals have a triumph on their hands with Sondheim In The City, an album that should make Sondheim lovers out of Errico fans, and Errico devotees out of Sondheim aficionados. It is definitely an album to put on your “must have” list. On this 57-minute recording, Errico et al do themselves proud, they do Mr. Sondheim honor, and they do The City just right. But let’s be honest, here: Melissa Errico always does it just right.”
“The always glorious Broadway and cabaret star, Melissa Errico unveiled her exquisite new album,Sondheim in the City, smack in the middle of her Manhattan Valentine series at Birdland Theater. The star performed ten sets between Valentine’s Day and February 18, with the album-only shows taking place on February 16 and 17. Many of familiar Sondheim songs appear on the album, along with several obscure pieces and a few surprises unknown to all but the most inside cognoscenti. Ms. Errico performed nearly every cut from the album, mostly in the same order. Looking stunning in a cream gown, she weaved stories about Sondheim, the music and her life as a New Yorker (by way of Manhasset) into a musical Manhattan essay. The song order helps to relate the story of the love/hate relationship New Yorkers have with this crazy town, through the lens of Sondheim’s brilliant lyrics. Many familiar Sondheim songs appear on the album, along with several obscure pieces and a few surprises unknown to all but the most inside cognoscenti. Ms. Errico turned to her musical director, Tedd Firth, for a stunning ‘Anyone Can Whistle,’ with only piano accompaniment. Her stirring, emotional delivery was perfect. The star, who believes Sondheim’s songs ‘can live outside the plays’ (his songs were always written specifically for the characters), upped the ante further with a moving ‘Good Thing Going.’ A special film of her rendition of this song was released, along with the album, on the day of the show. For the showstopper ‘Broadway Baby’ (Follies), she pulled on long, black dress gloves ‘from Amazon’ and a fur stole. No surprise, this Broadway baby knocked it out of the park. When she sang ‘Sorry-Grateful’ (Company), ‘the great ambivalent song about ambivalence,’ Ms. Errico worked herself up emotionally, seeming to tear up at the break. Continuing in this vein, she displayed strong acting skills in an exceptional and emotional reading of ‘Being Alive’ from the same show. With ‘another hundred people’ waiting for the late show, Ms. Errico closed the show with a ‘coda’ of “Nice Town, But–” a previously unreleased and unproduced Sondheim song she managed to get hold of. It is not on the album. You should have been there! The album, which this writer has listened to in its entirety, is a must-buy.”
