| Melissa Errico last night | |
| Posted by: showtunetrivia 11:53 am EST 12/22/22 | |
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| Yes, Chatterati, yours truly (plus daughter) ventured outside last night, for the first indoor event since a high school SWEENEY TODD in February 2020! Melissa Errico’s holiday show at Feinstein’s at Vitello’s in Studio City. We had a private booth at the rear, shared with two friends. Our waiter, Brandon, took excellent care of us, getting the bartender to make a Bronx cocktail for me and bringing a copy of my BROADWAY REVIVAL backstage to Melissa. (Also one to put in Michael Feinstein’s office, but who knows when/if he’ll ever get it, as the nightclub is closing…) This concert was originally supposed to be all-Sondheim, held this summer, but Melissa got Covid while touring, so it was rescheduled for December, with a holiday theme. To say this was a huge disappointment to us at the time is a vast understatement, as Errico is the best Sondheim interpreter today, for my money. But no worries. There was plenty of Sondheim last night, leading off with “Everybody Says Don’t,” and including “Sooner or Later” (which she knocked out of the park), “Not While I’m Around,” and a dazzling version of “I Remember” from EVENING PRIMROSE. And then there was an eight minute Sondheim Christmas parody with holiday lyrics by Adam Gopnik that had me nearly falling off my seat. (Link is included, so you can laugh, too.) Even her comments on “My Favorite Things” included a Sondheim reference (Hammerstein as SS’s mentor), and Coleman’s “The Best Is Yet To Come” was introduced as one of those 50 songs Sondheim wished he wrote. Errico was in the stage version of WHITE CHRISTMAS, so we got that classic, and we were extremely pleased (as SoCal gals) that she included Berlin’s verse. That part rarely gets sung since it’s about how the singer is in Los Angeles (well, Beverly Hills) and thus is dreaming of a white Christmas. In a related vein, we got the classic “Christmas Song” (“Chestnuts roasting”) and Adam Gopnik’s parody to the same tune about recording Christmas songs in SoCal in July, with the AC humming and everyone sweating. Also in the holiday vein, she gave us Tom Lehrer’s “Chanukah in Santa Monica.” Comedian Jon Lovitz was added to the program as a “special guest;” I figured he’d come on to do a comedy bit while Melissa took a break at the halfway mark. Instead, they paired on another Gopnik parody, “Baby, It’s Woke Outside.” Then while she changed outfits, Lovitz did a couple of jazz numbers that really let veteran pianist Randy Waldman and his bass player show their chops. That was definitely some of the best jazz piano I’ve ever heard. Waldman, of course, was Barbara Streisand’s longtime pianist-conductor-arranger, so Errico gave us “Evergreen.” Which may sound like a holiday song, but isn’t. Errico, as folks here know, was close to Michel Legrand, ever since she starred in AMOUR, and has done a terrific all-Legrand album. She gave us Legrand’s classic, “What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life?” with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. She told us after arriving in LA this week, she had lunch with Alan, now 97 and still writing! In between the numbers, we got wonderful little commentaries on performing, momhood, travel, etc. After the show, we said hello to Melissa herself (!!!), a fitting end to a marvelous night. Laura in LA, who was gloriously happy all evening, and not just the buzz of that Bronx cocktail |
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| Link | Errico-Gopnik Sondheim Xmas parody |
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