ajhlovestheatre

THE LIFE AND LOVES OF A BROADWAY BABY: An Evening with Melissa Errico at Crazy Coqs

Melissa Errico with special guest Isabelle Georges 

and James Pearson Band: James Pearson – Piano/MD Sam Burgess – Bass Chris Higgenbottom – Drums Graeme Blevins – Sax/Flute

Le Crazy Coqs at Brasserie Zedel, London – 10 July 2023

A quick glance at Broadway star Melissa Errico’s theatre resumé – Eliza in My Fair Lady, Cosette in Les Misérables, Maria in The Sound Of Music, Betty in White Christmas, Tracy in High Society – gives one an expectation that her cabaret is going to be something pleasant, melodic, easy to sit through, maybe a little bland. The Life And Loves Of A Broadway Baby turns out to be rather more than all that thought, due to the sheer, unexpected force of Ms Errico’s personality and her gloriously off kilter sense of humour.

Having only ever seen her playing (exquisitely) the role of Clara in John Doyle’s 2013 off-Broadway revival of Sondheim’s Passion, I knew she has a gorgeous voice and that she’s wholesomely beautiful. But I wasn’t prepared for her innate sense of camp, her self-deprecating humour and her earthy sensuality and physicality (the way she moves to music is something joyful to behold) when working through a set list heavy on Michel Legrand (she starred in his short-lived Amour musical on Broadway and is clearly a major Francophile), but also encompassing Porter, Gershwin and a fair bit of Sondheim, Her voice is honeyed and rich in the lower register before soaring effortlessly into soprano territory, and remaining miraculously sweet even when at full belt, it’s the sort of sound you don’t tend to hear much of in modern musicals.

With her tumble of brown curls (“well, most of it’s real” she quipped after being complimented), cherubic face and hourglass figure poured into a sparkling gown (“I came dressed as a saxophone”), she’s old school glamorous but delightfully off-the-wall funny as she talks about some of the Broadway flops she’s appeared in, or the showbiz history in her own family (some of her Italian American antecedents were Ziegfeld girls, and her great aunt was in the original cast of Showboat), or when dealing with an impromptu wardrobe malfunction. Her stories ramble a bit, but she’s so engaging and witty that it’s half of the pleasure of the evening. What she doesn’t talk about in the show is her burgeoning second career as a writer, but it helps explains why even at her most eccentric and apparently spontaneous she’s still razor-sharp, and why the spoken parts of the show are as enjoyable as the beautifully jazzed-up versions of such standards as Legrand’s “The Windmills Of Your Mind” or an unexpectedly glorious swinging mash up of My Fair Lady’s “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” with The Sound Of Music’s “My Favourite Things”.

James Pearson’s quartet provide fine back-up, and Errico’s surprise guest, Parisian theatre and cabaret star Isabelle Georges who comes bowling on like a French Carol Burnett before unleashing a sensational, rangy voice and fabulous comedy chops, is likely to have picked up a whole legion of British fans after this performance. In fact, the women – who clearly adore each other – work so well together it would be amazing to see them co-star in a full length show.

Ultimately, Errico is the real deal. An ageless singing actress (she talks about being a barmaid in London in the late 80s and being married for twenty five years but she’s so youthful and vital, it barely seems conceivable) with deceptively rock solid technique, an irrepressible joie de vivre but genuine depth and an innate, unforced likability. More than anything, I now wish I’d seen her Dot/Marie in Sondheim and Lapine’s Sunday In The Park With George (she does a lovely version of “Move On” here)….could somebody please revive that again for her?!