Melissa Errico Will Encore OUT OF THE DARK: THE FILM NOIR PROJECT at 54 Below May 11th

The sound of a lonely saxophone, the melancholy patter of midnight rain, the velvet black of a city at night...and one perfect lonely chanteuse in a strapless gown... there's one word for it: Noir. Its music is essential to the Noir mystique, in vibrating circles of moody inspiration, and to celebrate the release of her new Warner Music/Ghostlight Records album Out Of The Dark: The Film Noir Project, Tony Award-nominee Melissa Errico will offer a special ENCORE concert May 11 at 7pm at Feinstein's/54 Below (Ticket Link HERE).

"Seventy-five minutes of exemplary musical storytelling...between the famous songs from films like "Jennifer" and musicals like "City of Angels," Ms. Errico glides effortlessly back and forth between historical facts that one suspects she did not need to research, already having them in her mind, and personal anecdotes the like of which serve as the bedrock for every Melissa Errico performance. The facts are fascinating and the extemporary is exciting, indeed, every moment of Out Of The Dark is fascinating and exciting, not to mention a festival of fastidiously prepared musical excellence. Errico sounds like a billion bucks, landing on every perfect pitch with unfathomable technique, both vocally and thespianically...with Out of the Dark, Melissa Errico has reached new heights." - BroadwayWorld

The masterly-crafted song cycle features all black-velvet piano and vibraphone tones, telling a complete story of hope, despair, and hope renewed. Errico's song selections (17 in total) reach from noir classics, such as Laura and The Bad and The Beautiful, into the French chansons of the 1950's and 60's, all the way to the present with contemporary extensions of the Noir sensibility, with new songs by Patricia Barber & David Shire. At the height of the pandemic in 2020, when the world was locked away in lonely rooms with only old movies to watch at midnight, Errico suddenly returned to one of her life-long obsessions - noir! The genre is noted for its dark, disturbing sensibility of intractable fatalism that Paris existentialists discovered in American film during the 1940's. Noir continues to run as a mesmerizing, mysterious current through modern movies and music, and Errico has embraced it in her own artistic endeavors. Also included in Out Of The Dark: The Film Noir Project are Cy Coleman & David Zippel's "With Every Breath I Take" (from the Broadway musical, City of Angels), Dietz & Schwartz's "Haunted Heart" (1948), Arlen & Gershwin's "The Man That Got Away" (1953), Lionel Newman's "Again" (1948), and Harry Warren & Leo Robin's mischievous "Checkin' My Heart" (1952). Plus: four brand new songs composed by Michel Legrand, David Shire, and the late Peter Foley, with words by her frequent collaborator Adam Gopnik.

"Melissa Errico's new album, Out of the Dark: The Film Noir Project gives us noir music the way we imagine it...melancholy, bittersweet tales of isolation and loneliness, beauty and betrayal...we are breathing along with her, seeing what she sees, feeling what she feels."- The Wall Street Journal

"She knows her way around a lyric...her new album Out of the Dark is ripe territory for a singer who can inhabit a song, and as a Tony Award-nominated actress she plunges into the role, offering charcoaled impressions of ill-fated romance, obsession, and thwarted dreams. - JazzTimes

Arranged by musical director/pianist Tedd Firth the album features 8 other incredible musicians: Bass, Lorin Cohen; Drums, Eric Halvorson; Guitar, Bob Mann; Vibes, Joe Locke; Percussion, Kevin Winard; Trumpet, Scott Wendholt; Saxophone, David Mann; and Cello, Richard Locker. For the release Melissa also filmed a stunning black & white music video for the opening track of the album "Angel Eyes" (music by Matt Dennis & lyrics by Earl Brent, originally introduced in the 1953 film Jennifer). Directed by filmmaker Matthew Edginton and shot at iconic NYC jazz club Birdland and the surrounding Times Square area, Errico employs the music and narratives of film noir in this music video to explore the subjects of loss, alienation, and disconnection, strongly felt in the noir aesthetic.

"The Maria Callas of American musical theater," as Opera News has called her, referencing both her silken voice and dramatic, expressive intensity, Melissa Errico is an actress, singer, and author. First known for her starring roles on Broadway in shows like My Fair Lady (as Eliza Dolittle), High Society, Irving Berlin's White Christmas, and Les Misérables, she has since become a concert, cabaret and recording artist, having made many studio recordings including her debut on EMI Records produced by Arif Mardin, Blue Like That. her 2018 album Sondheim Sublime (released by Warner Music/Ghostlight Records) was called by The Wall Street Journal "The best all-Sondheim album ever recorded." Along with her many appearances singing and playing Sondheim on Broadway, Off-Broadway and The Kennedy Center, she is also closely associated with the music of late Michel Legrand-having starred in his sole Broadway show, Amour. She was asked to write his eulogy by The New York Times and was then invited to become the sole American performer to participate in the extraordinary two-day memorial to Legrand held in April 2019 at Paris's Le Grand Rex Theatre, work that led one critic to announce that, "Errico is, and will continue to be, the premier interpreter of the musical legacy of Michel Legrand." Her album of Legrand's music, Legrand Affair Deluxe Edition, was released in 2019 (also by Warner Music/Ghostlight Records).

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