Review: Melissa Errico Brings a Different Kind of Holiday Show to 54 Below

Melissa Errico’s ’Twas The Night After Christmas – A Winter Party with Billy Stritch is an inventive, captivating show. It opened last night on Thursday December 26th and continues nightly through December 30th, the night before New Year’s Eve, with all shows at 7 pm. (Tickets are available on 54 Below’s website.) In it, she deconstructs and re-imagines what holiday songs actually are. Standards like “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music have become known as Christmas songs, when their origins were much different. She strings together a mixture of holiday favorites and Broadway classics recast as holiday songs, plus a few off the beaten path, all while singing to perfection and charming the crowd with that signature Melissa Errico smile.

This is the perfect holiday show for a certain kind of Broadway afficionado, liberal intellectual, well-versed in Sondheim but still in search of a good time for the holidays. You don’t need to be familiar with Sondheim’s canon, but it does make the jokes funnier if you are. I won’t spoil the show, but there are some very funny lyric re-writes, including a section where essayist Adam Gopnik rewrote a few Sondheim songs about modern holiday woes, like regrettable gifts and a harried mother who’s gone un-thanked after putting on Christmas for the entire family. And, of course, there’s a Hanukkah song – not written by Sondheim, but Errico chose the most Sondheim-adjacent Hanukkah song out there, written by one of his peers, another clever lyricist with a sharp eye for satire and humor.

Errico was perfectly at home at 54 Below, “Broadway’s living room.” She started the show literally wearing a pair of green plaid pajamas, complete with sparkly dangly earrings, celebrating the fact that Christmas was over and we could all relax and sleep in now. Her engagement with the crowd felt completely organic. At one point, while she was singing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” some silverware clattered in the back. She finished the verse she was on and ad-libbed, “Sounds like home,” drawing uproarious laughter from the audience. Accompanying her on piano was Music Director Billy Stritch on piano, Eric Halvorson on drums and David Finck on bass. Stritch and Errico performed several lovely duets together, including a harmonious and cheerful “Sleigh Ride.” Stritch had the floor all to himself for a bit, entertaining us with solo Christmas songs while Errico changed into her “concert clothes.” She re-appeared from the bar area wearing a gorgeous red and white gown made by Broadway Costume Designer Eric Winterling, meant to evoke the dress she wore years ago on Broadway in White Christmas. She made her way to the stage, weaving through the audience while singing Styne and Cahn’s “The Christmas Waltz.”

There were plenty of other surprises in store for the night, last but not least of all including a duet with special guest Ava Arkin. The pair sang a heartful, sincere “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” ending in an embrace. Errico said towards the end that with this show, she was hoping to make space for a little joy in a dark time, and she merrily succeeded.

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Tickets to Melissa Errico’s ’Twas The Night After Christmas – A Winter Party with Billy Stritch are available on 54 Below’s website. The December 28 show features special guest Alice Ripley. The December 29 performance will be livestreamed.

(At the time of this writing, there are still subsidized $15 tickets available for Monday, December 30th through 54 Below’s initiative to make cabaret more accessible to those who might otherwise be unable to afford it.)

Header photo credit: Conor Weiss

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