Melissa Errico & Patrick McEnroe Discuss Their Upcoming Hamptons Events

We caught up with former tennis pro Patrick McEnroe and singer, actress and writer Melissa Errico, both with big events coming up in the Hamptons in the next couple of weeks. Errico will be performing her “Melissa Errico Sings the Summer” concert at the Southampton Arts Center on Sunday, September 1, while McEnroe will be busy at the mega JMTP Pro Am fundraiser with his brother John on Saturday, August 24. Here we talk about swooning songs, summer romance, the Johnny Mac Tennis Project, and “trains, teens and automobiles.”

Melissa, tell us about your upcoming concert on September 1.

We are going to bring a summer show with lots of summer sounds. Swinging, silly, sexy, beautiful, swooning songs from Irving Berlin’s “How Deep is The Ocean?,” a Latin-tinged Cole Porter from one of my Broadway musicals, to Joni Mitchell’s great summer tune, “Night Ride Home.” Always some Legrand at his most Jobim-like (they were good friends!) and Sondheim — my two musical mentors — and filled with American Songbook classics everyone will recognize played by a crackerjack jazz trio. I think of every song as a story in itself. No art form is more condensed than the storytelling of a song. Athletic and intellectual, and a whole world told in 3-5 minutes.

What is special about performing on Long Island?

I love Long Island audiences. I suppose part of it is that on the one hand, they’re very sophisticated and knowing, having grown up right on the fringe of the world’s greatest cultural city, and at the same time very yearning and reaching, and ready to laugh. When I sing on Long Island, I recall myself as a young girl, in a state of vibrating excitement taking the train into Manhattan with long-sought tickets to hear A Chorus Line or Me and My Gal — and then eventually to audition for shows myself — and I try to sing to her!

There’s something magical about summer concerts. Do you feel the same way?

It’s always fun to sing in the summer. It’s a time to let yourself go, release the pressure. I like to sing bright, uplifting songs in the summer, songs that capture the joy of the season, even reminiscent of a summer romance.

Speaking of summer romance, tell us how you and Patrick met.

When we “re-met” (we knew each other as kids) at one of my brother’s shows (he’s a singer-songwriter; and now a music professor at NYU), we quickly reminisced about our childhoods. We remembered things only kids would know — like I recalled his cat’s name was Charlotte and he remembered my dad used to have a fridge in the basement only for sugary sodas, like Sprite. His mother saw me in My Fair Lady when I was 22 and set us up a few years later, when he was home from Wimbledon to have a shoulder surgery.

In 1996, we had been dating just a few months and I got a job at Bay Street Theater. I was cast to play Betty Comden as a young writer (which interestingly foretold my own becoming a writer, it seems). There were legends everywhere! Tony Walton was the set and costume designer. Jeanine Tesori was the conductor. Andrew Lippa the pianist. Comden and Green were at all the rehearsals. They wrote the show. Phyllis Newman herself directed! Surreal. David Ives was on hand to doctor the libretto.

One day, all those people were at my rental house, and Patrick made them hamburgers on a summer day. We were crazy in love. Sag Harbor is always glowing for us. My parents live in Southampton, and that’s my summer home.

Patrick, you have a big event coming up, the Johnny Mac Tennis Project (JMTP) Pro Am on August 24. Tell us about it.

This is a huge fundraiser for us — the biggest of the year, and actually, the world. All the proceeds go directly to the JMTP, the foundation started by my brother John to help expose kids to tennis who might not normally have the opportunity. We’ve got some legends coming this year like Mary Joe Fernandez, Mats Wilander, Andrea Petkovic and Christina McHale. It’s a lot of fun. There’s even an after-party at a private residence with music, food and a live auction.

How does the JMTP help kids?

We support kids from New York City and introduce them to the sport of tennis through the John McEnroe Tennis Academy on Randall’s Island. Tennis is expensive, and we give scholarships to kids to allow them to play and train there. For a lot of them it’s their home away from home.

A lot of eyes will be watching the U.S. Open starting August 26 where you’ll be analyst/commentator. Do you feel tennis has gained popularity in recent years?

Tennis is doing incredibly well. There’s a lot of buzz about it. A lot of fresh young faces, live events, international players. After the pandemic it was one of the only activities available to people. It’s a very exciting time for tennis.

Though you both live in the spotlight, you do have a day-to-day family life. I got to eavesdrop on your dilemma about coordinating kids, dinner and schedules.

Yes! Patrick was explaining that he was picking up our daughter Juliette from her dance intensive in Manhattan, and that he wasn’t coming home for dinner, which I hadn’t realized. I’m recording an album all week so had to go to the recording studio, and he said Victoria was arriving from Maine by plane, and he would get her from the airport late. The kids had been communicating with him knowing I was recording. Diana just got home from a ballerina summer training with Carolina Ballet. Planes, trains & automobiles! That’s our life! Maybe we should rephrase that to: planes, teens and automobiles!

To purchase tickets to the JMTP Pro Am event on August 24 in Amagansett visit givesmart.com/events/D1x

To purchase tickets to Melissa Errico’s concert on September 1 at the Southampton Arts Center visit southamptonartscenter.app