Melissa Errico Set to Marvel at Bay Street’s Music Mondays

Music occupies an irreplaceable space in the public consciousness, for fans and artists alike. Whether in the form of popular music that we listen to, soundtracks for films and television, plot pieces in musical theater or classic anthems we sing along to at concerts, music has a way of bringing people together. Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater continues to celebrate that, bringing yet another musical master to the stage for their next Music Monday: Melissa Errico.

As an award-winning performer, singer, actress and writer, Melissa Errico has mastered music in all of its forms. From her performances in leading roles on Broadway, such as her Tony-nominated turn in Michel Legrand’s Amour and her breakout role in My Fair Lady, to her recent focus on her cabaret-style shows and themed recorded albums, Errico has proven that her voice is versatile enough to keep up with her many talents. She even uses her voice in print, as a writer for The New York Times.

Recently, she’s been keeping busy by dazzling audiences with an array of performances across the country and is bringing her show titled “Let Yourself Go” to the Bay Street Theater on August 21. Famed musical theater composer Stephen Schwartz will join Errico to perform a few songs from his repertoire.

Here, Errico speaks on the show in her own words.

Melissa Errico Talks Bay Street

Your upcoming show at Bay Street seems to be summer-themed, with a mix of Broadway show tunes and classics, and you promise the audience the chance to let go. Why the theme of letting go?

I just think that post-pandemic, amid all the political crises we face — and that I have to confront every day as much as everyone else — there’s a moment when we just need some release, an hour or two of giddy fun, something sexy and summery and easy. I don’t mean “letting go” in the sense of not caring, but sort of in the Barbie phenomenon sense — allowing us to see the meaning lurking in sheer pleasure. Let’s all celebrate life! We deserve to.

You’re originally from Long Island and have performed many times out in the Hamptons. How does your familiarity with the Island and the audience inform your performance?

I’ve spent countless summers out here, first as a girl in Manhasset and then as a young performer in Sag Harbor and East Hampton, and after that as a mother with girls in tennis camp. I love the summer feeling; I love the potato fields and ocean. I always feel alive in the world out here — ocean air and starry nights. My husband and I spent many of our first summers out here, so there’s a spell of romance for me in it, too.

You’re essentially on tour right now, work in so many different fields and you’re also a mom. How do you juggle it all?

Through sheer exhaustion. Seriously, I’m blessed to have three daughters who are themselves passionate about work — whether tennis, scholarship or ballet — and who respect my passion for mine. I miss them desperately when I’m away, but I try to give them the model of a woman fulfilled by her work, and I hope that will fuel their own passions in life. But it’s hard! Thank God for Facetime!

You’ve accomplished so much, especially in theater, garnering a Tony nomination and starring in over two dozen shows. What’s next on your theater to-do list?

I’ve devoted myself in recent years to concerts and cabarets that are a sort of self-penned theater — shows, like the one I did this year called Terminal Ingenue, which have great songs but also have a story and a plot and an arc. So that’s very much on my to-do list — more of my own theatrical projects. The big event in my professional life over the past five years has been pivoting to writing as much as performing, and writing roles for myself is part of that.

That said, I also of course very much want to continue appearing in classic revivals and new shows, too. I did an off-Broadway run as Mrs. Patrick Campbell, the great Shavian actress, in a play made up of letters, called Dear Liar, this year, without a song in sight.  It was thrilling. I love to work, and I’m a “yes” person on principle. So … producers, directors, go ahead! Propose! I live to say, “Yes.”

Have you seen any shows recently that inspired you to really want to get back on stage?

Like everyone, I loved Victoria Clark in Kimberly Akimbo and I can’t wait to see my friend Kelli O’Hara in Adam Guettel’s Days of Wine & Roses.  Adam and I are determined to find something to work on together as well. I get so much inspiration from my fellow actors, whose courage and steadfastness through good times and bad is my deepest — and longest-standing — inspiration.

Speaking of writing, during the pandemic you began freelance essay writing, telling stories about theater and the arts. Has writing changed how you approach performing? How has performing informed your writing?

Well, as I say, a lot of my performing now is my writing. It involves what I call the caber-essay — concert shows with stories to tell.  But writing stories for The New York Times has been one of the great pluses of my life for the past few years since it gives me a chance to organize my own experience and emotions and make them matter for other people — make readers empathize with the crazy life of an actress-singer on the road. I did a piece about being back on the road post-pandemic, beginning with my nightly search for some stranger to zipper my gowns, that seemed to make people laugh and, weirdly, identify. We all have craziness in our lives; mine is just more dramatically external. And I get to draw attention to my passions — most recently, to the art of the great Marilyn Maye.

Another passion of yours seems to be recording albums with unique themes. How has that been a different and necessary creative outlet, versus performing in shows?

Making albums, song collections, that have real meaning is maybe my prime preoccupation now. I did my first all-Sondheim album, Sondheim Sublime, at a time of a crisis in my life — now, thankfully, past! — and then began my Noir album, Out of the Dark, in the midst of the pandemic.  Both were “concept” albums of a kind — Out of the Dark actually won an award as “concept album of the year!” — built around a theme. Sondheim Sublime was all about leaving a legacy for my children if I had to — songs of rapture and spellcasting and protectiveness.

Out of the Dark was all about the strange play of hope and despair in our lives, how we are drawn to darkness and then seek the light, about destiny and escaping it. And about erotic allure! All the great noir themes. I have a new album coming out in the fall that I hope will continue the series.

Do you have a theme or composer in mind for that album?

Well, since you ask … my new one is on a Sondheim theme, too — somehow, I always keep meeting that man — though I won’t quite say yet what.

Are there any other upcoming projects that you are excited about, that you can share?

Just this summer, I sang with George Benson’s great, groovy, funky band in front of 8,000 people in Montreal. A George Benson record was one of the first two LPS — remember those? — I ever bought, so it was transporting to be playing with his musicians. I’d love to do more singing of that kind — all-out funky, full-force modern jazz. I’m hoping more will happen!

Aside from “letting go,” what is something you want your audience to take away from seeing you live, whether they’ve seen you before, or if it’s their first time?

I want to make people gasp delightedly at the old songs and laugh helplessly at the new stories and maybe even be a bit stimulated by the romantic numbers. I want them to cry for joy!  I’m a singer by profession, but an actor by vocation — I live to make people feel the songs as though they were poems, sagas or short stories.  I want to make your heart beat harder. Is that too much? I only hope I can.

Let go with Melissa Errico at Bay Street Theater on Monday, August 21 at 8 p.m. Tickets are available by calling 631-725-9500, emailing boxoffice@baystreet.org or online at baystreet.org, starting at $70.