Melissa Errico took the stage at 54 Below with two songs that perfectly captured her effervescent first impression: “I’m All Smiles” (from The Yearling) and “Hurry! It’s Lovely Up Here” (from On a Clear Day You Can See Forever). A delightful breath of fresh air swept through the cabaret space as she paid loving homage to Barbra Streisand — “not a tribute,” she clarified. “I’m not impersonating Streisand but rather charting the influence she’s had on music and on all of us.” Continuing with early Streisand material, she sang the lovely and touching “The Way We Were,” followed by a luminous new arrangement of “Lazy Afternoon” by keyboardist Andy Ezrin that seemed to float and swirl above our heads like something half-remembered and wholly adored.

Errico’s love for Streisand runs deep. She devoured Streisand’s recent memoir, My Name is Barbra—nearly 1,000 pages—and also listened to the audiobook narrated by Streisand herself, which clocks in at 48 hours. Delighted to discover that her pianist Billy Stritch was mentioned on page 778, she invited him to read the passage aloud: a charming account of how he and Liza Minnelli attended one of Barbra’s parties and helped persuade her to return to the concert stage.