Interview: Melissa Errico Offers a Different Kind of Holiday Show at 54 Below

Everyone sings a holiday show before Christmas – but only Melissa Errico would invent a new kind of show especially for the happy days after the holiday, when we finally get to relax, open our presents, play with the good toys, return the horrible sweaters, and generally kick back and enjoy ourselves without stress.

’Twas The Night After Christmas will be Melissa’s special holiday party, and, in the company of the inimitable Billy Stritch, will truly be something different and especially joyous: a winter party between Christmas and New Year’s for every kind of holiday-er. Winter light and winter pleasures will be their theme; Melissa will sing American songbook’s  Christmas and New Year’s classics, of course, from Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things” to Frank Loesser’s “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” … but the beloved Broadway star of My Fair Lady, High Society, White Christmas, and more will also show off her inimitable storyteller style.

Read a conversation with Errico about the upcoming show and her plans for 2025 so far.

What are you most looking forward to about your Christmas show at 54 Below?

Well, that it’s a post-Christmas show – The Night AFTER Christmas -- which gives us a chance for something a little more wild, a little more witty – maybe even a little more wicked .  The run-up to Christmas is always a bit exhausting for everyone, including performers; everyone has so much to do and is so determined to have a good time. And we all feel obliged to be more spiritual than we sometimes feel. This year, Billy Stritch and I wanted the week *between* Christmas and New Years for our show, at the ever-welcoming 54 Below. I imagine everyone in a more relaxed and mischievous mood – including me! Like the mice in “Nutcracker” (which one of my beautiful daughters is appearing in right now) – who get the run of the house when everyone’s exhausted. I’ll be a clever, sexy mouse, racing around, exploring the crumbs from all the half-finished pies, and hiding in the wrapping paper. (Is this metaphor working? Ha! Ha!) And, oh my God, the dress that Eric Winterling has made for me! It’s “White Christmas” plus. Definitely not made for any mouse! 

What inspired you to do a show centered around the week in between Christmas and New Years?

As I say, I LOVE performing Christmas music. Or really, holiday music – I have a couple of beautiful Hanukah songs in the show as well – and I’ve been doing it since I was six! But I wanted to have fun and to offer in this time… so troubled on so many fronts at once… a show of real release and festive relaxation. You know, like the feeling on the morning after Christmas, when all the presents are unwrapped and everyone’s happy and you’re just enjoying the coffee and breakfast muffin and gossiping about everything that happened on Christmas Eve. That kind of good, familiar feeling. With some classic songs and some surprises – and, who knows? -- maybe even a world premiere of what might be a new classic by a couple of my faithful songwriters.

I spent a childhood with my father at the piano, so comfortable there, so natural. Who on earth is more at ease than Billy Stritch? Duets? Yes! 

I’m the kind of person who sits at the table the day after, for example, Thanksgiving (which I host) and stares at the mess…the candles that burned for hours and are now sculpted with drips. I see the little dishes from my great grandmother that I’d brought out, the antique spoons that need to go back in the box… the candy wrappers, the unfinished nuts and cakes, Bingo cards, port in little blown-glass cups from a Greek vacation…the little special things all over the table that tell the story. That’s a feeling you can sing. 

You've been touring the country a lot performing. How does it feel to be back in NYC?

I love the road, and love to write about it.

Sometimes last year I found myself in Paris twice and onstage at The Montreal Jazz Festival opening for George Benson, speaking French too, at Salle-Pelletier. I’ve been singing this season from Erie, Pa. to Las Vegas, Nevada — and with symphonies from Victoria Canada to Syracuse! — and find that each town is like a little lock you have to open: you either remember the combination from past shows or find it on the floor. But New York is home – the place I was born, the city I sing – and so any time I’m here, I’m just plain happy.

You're going to be doing parodies of a few Sondheim songs during the show. Can you tell us a little bit about your writing process or inspiration for one of those?

I love Sondheim, but it occurred to me that he wasn’t really a Christmas animal – no ho-ho-ho songs in “Sweeney Todd”. So, I turned to one of my fine colleagues and favorite lyricists, the highbrow essayist Adam Gopnik. In between warning the world about the various approaching apocalypses and setting everyone straight about the usual range of subjects – (and working on his own imminent one-man show with Steve Martin producing) – we quickly came up with some hilarious takes on Sondheim classics. “Losing My Mind“ becomes the torch song of a Mom on Christmas Eve desperately trying to assemble a kit from Ikea – believe me, I’ve been there – and “Sorry, Grateful” is what a woman sings to her husband when he gives her the usual, husbandly perplexing gift. (I’ve been there, too.) We had a lot of fun doing them, and they’ve always got a nice response from people who love the Sondheim songs and still like to see them…expanded - subverted?- a little.  

What's next on your plate?

I also have two holidays concerts with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra Dec 21 at 1:30 pm and 7:30 pm.

And I have a thrilling kind of climax to my Sondheim cycle, which began with my album “Sondheim Sublime” and continued with this years’ “Sondheim In The City” : an all Sondheim show at Cadogan Hall in London next July 12th.

So, I’ll have sung at Cadogan in London, Carnegie in New York, and Le Grand Rex in Paris… all that’s left is -- well, what’s the best concert hall in Shanghai? (Oh, and I do want to play the Olympia!) Ahead, I have a truly unique project: a one-woman show devoted to the music of World War One that will open at the Kennedy Center next year, May 7.

And a new album of standards is almost finished – Jonathan Schwartz, bless him, once called me “The Blur”, given all the stuff I seem to do. But…I intend to stop moving long enough to finally write the book I’ve been teasing for years. 2025 – that’s the book year. The book itself may be a blur of emotion, memory, comedy and acting advice. But for once I’ll be still.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Just that as my career goes on, the abiding love I have for performing becomes keener and the connection to the audience – any audience – more important. Even with videos and YouTube – for which I’m insanely grateful; my whole life is on there, even “One Touch Of Venus” and “Sunday in The Park” with Raul Esparza -- the best of the performer’s life is that the performance passes.  Someone said once that being in the theater is as if Michelangelo created the greatest sculpture of his life…in ice. It was bound to melt. But it was still beautiful. We are all ice sculptors, but it is a wonderful life.

Oh, and that my real dream in a Christmas show is playing Mrs. Santa at Radio City. I think I could give her some real backbone, and maybe tell the truth about what she must get up to on Christmas Eve when Santa’s away…anyway, she’s my ideal part.

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Tickets to see Melissa Errico at 54 Below December 26 to December 30, 2024 are available on 54 Below’s website.

Find more about Melissa Errico and her other upcoming tour dates on her website at melissaerrico.com.

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