First Look At Melissa Errico And Isabelle Georgesin The Premiere Of DEUX GRANDES DAMES At London's Crazy Coqs
By: A.A. Cristi Jul. 12, 2024
Last summer, Tony Award-nominated Broadway star and recording artist and author, Melissa Errico and Isabelle Georges introduced their joyous musical partnership to Paris, first on a national broadcast on France Musique followed by a raucous success at Le Bal Blomet, the premier cabaret of Paris.
They added sold-out nights at Birdland Jazz Club in New York City this February, and last night the two “tall” & “leading” ladies - sexy, witty, and utterly musical - made their debut together as part of the Crazy Coqs French season. There is one further date this week on Saturday 13 July at 7pm.
As Michel Legrand's double French & American muses - they both starred in his only musical comedy, Amour, which dazzled in Paris with Isabelle, then went to Broadway with Melissa - they share his melodic and swinging songs, as well as more from French cinema, the American songbook, and even new originals by Broadway great Marc Shaiman.
Isabelle recently appeared with Melissa at Birdland Jazz Club in NYC during her 10-show residency and had a successful concert of her own at 54 Below “Being in the room when Isabelle Georges is performing is to be in the eye of the hurricane, and you will never want to leave” - BroadwayWorld.
Expect Isabelle's brilliant music hall dancing and playful harmonies on Broadway classics - and Melissa's passionate rendition of Hymne de L'Amour by Edith Piaf.
Melissa Errico
Touring the world with her inimitable thematic concerts, from Singapore to Paris to San Francisco and beyond, Melissa Errico has built a unique niche in the world of theater and jazz – so much so that when Steven Reineke, principal conductor of the New York Pops, introduced her Carnegie Hall debut, he announced that “Melissa Errico is a unique force in the musical life of New York City: a Broadway star, a concert artist, and an author who regularly contributes essays to The New York Times. There's really no one like her!” The Times itself summed up her appeal simply: “Any chance to hear Melissa Errico sing is a chance worth taking.”
Her concerts in the past year alone have included a Paris duet in 2023 with her frequent singing partner Isabelle Georges and she opened for music icon George Benson at the Montreal Jazz Festival. A writer from London Jazz News wrote that: “Errico was energised, making sure with every breath that she would get the audience in the 3000-seater Pelletier really on her side. Every high note was heroically held, and she got a standing ovation from this audience. Montreal audiences always want to show their warmth, and this one made her deservedly welcome.”
A uniquely wide-ranging performer, a specialist in the seemingly very different musics of Stephen Sondheim and Michel Legrand, her 2018 album, Sondheim Sublime, was called by The Wall Street Journal “The best all-Sondheim album ever recorded,” and Gramophone magazine described its brand new sequel, “Sondheim In The City” (Concord Records) as a record that “takes the musical theater compilation album to a new level.” The album comes out on vinyl on June 14th, 2024; and will be celebrated at Lin-Manuel Miranda's Drama Book Shop in New York City on June 27th. Her November Carnegie Hall debut performance included three Sondheim numbers, including “Losing My Mind” and “Move On.” On the other shore of her expertise, in 2019 she wrote the eulogy for Legrand in The New York Times and was the only American performer asked to appear at the now-legendary two-day memorial concert at Paris' Le Grand Rex.
First known for her starring roles on Broadway, including My Fair Lady, High Society, Anna Karenina, White Christmas, Dracula, and Les Misérables, Melissa has had a wide-ranging career from television and film to recording. She starred in the CBS show Central Park West and played roles on Blue Bloods, The Knick, and more, as well as Billions on Showtime. She has starred in many non-musical roles by Shaw and Oscar Wilde, including Dear Liar in the spring of 2023, playing George Bernard Shaw's original Eliza Doolittle.
Though a constant in the New York theater, she has become equally known for her music and concert work worldwide, with sold-out concert dates from Ravinia to Caramoor and Wolf Trap — including the 92nd Street Y, Joe's Pub, Town Hall, and Lincoln Center's Allen Room. Errico's history with Sondheim began when he selected her to star as Dot in Sunday In The Park With George at The Kennedy Center, then as Clara in Passion at Classic Stage Company; then in the NY City Center Encores! production of Do I Hear A Waltz? In 2020, she sang “Children and Art” in the Sondheim 90th Birthday Concert Take Me To The World, and was featured on PBS television in a documentary special in which she sang a feminist version of “Finishing The Hat” and joined Adam Gopnik and Raul Esparza to talk Sondheim on Poetry in America. She was also featured in The New York Times tribute to Sondheim in November 2021 as one of the top ten interpreters of his work. Her second Sondheim album, Sondheim In The City, was released on February 16, 2024, and earned her still more praise from the Times as, “one of Sondheim's deepest-hearted but lightest touch interpreters.”
In addition to Sondheim, nothing in her work has been more constant than her association with Legrand. Having starred in his sole Broadway show, Amour, she went on to collaborate with him on the iconic album Legrand Affair. Warner Music/Ghostlight Records also reissued her symphonic album, which Legrand arranged and conducted, as Legrand Affair (Deluxe Edition).
She is currently working on expanding her collected New York Times essays about a singer's strange life on the stage and road, gathered under the heading “Scenes From An Acting Life”, into a book. She has three daughters and is married to tennis player and journalist Patrick McEnroe.
Isabelle Georges
A radiant and reassuring presence, a voice that reaches for the stars, a powerful zest for life through song and dance, has passion for new horizons, projects and encounters... Isabelle Georges united all of the aforementioned with a smile. On stage, a performer, and often creator of her own shows, we witness her inspiring cultural and artistic heritage in a joyful combination of musical theatre, French songs, classical, jazz and Yiddish music. This melting pot of music and language reflects her free-spirited, ever-curious nature, finely honed from childhood. The environment in which Isabelle grew up was both musical and music loving. It was profoundly humanistic, open and full of promises that, after many years in hospital, ignited inside an energy that she would never lose. Musical theatre allowed her not only to forge her own path alongside the dramatic soprano legacy from her mother but also to rediscover her body with dance and begin to arm himself for the stage in Jean-Paul Lucet's production of Barnum. Isabelle attended Cours Florent and her idols include Judy Garland (the subject of her first show in 2005), Barbra Streisand, Jacques Brel... Isabelle Georges' generously transmits all the genres that touch, inspire and nourish her but favours excellence over profusion. She masters her French repertoire as well as her musical theatre classics (especially from the 1940s) and, just like dreams come true, her creativity has resulted shows with: Judy And Me, Padam Padam, Broadway Enchanté, Amour Amor and the latest addition: Oh, La La.
Deux Grandes Dames
with Melissa Errico & Isabelle Georges
Saturday 13 July at 7pm (75 mins)
CRAZY COQS
20 Sherwood Street,
London
W1F 7ED
Tickets: £30
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