Melissa Errico

Early life

Melissa Errico was born in New York Hospital and lived in New York City for five years while her New Jersey-raised father completed medical residency and her Brooklyn-native mother was a schoolteacher in Harlem. Both of first-generation Italian descent, her parents relocated the family to Manhasset, Long Island where her father established a medical practice in Orthopedics. Starting her professional career at the age of 12, Melissa appeared on national television in the Sunbow Entertainment production, syndicated children's TV series The Great Space Coaster, created by Kermit Love (original Muppet designer for Jim Henson) and Jim Martin. Errico's maternal grandmother was an operatic, lyric soprano and her grandmother's sister was a Ziegfeld Follies girl.

Education

Errico is a graduate of Yale University. During her freshman year, Errico was asked to audition for the role of Cosette and was cast. Errico toured for over a year in the First National Company of Les Misérables then returned and graduated from Yale University with an honors degree in Art History & Philosophy. While a student in New Haven, Errico played Irina in The Three Sisters with Edward Norton. She was accepted into the Yale Graduate School of Drama but dropped out to star in Anna Karenina as Princess Kitty on Broadway at The Circle in the Square Theatre. Errico is a graduate of the BADA program at Oxford University where she studied acting Shakespeare and Chekhov.

Theater

Errico played Cosette in Les Miserables (National Tour) and Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady on Broadway. Other Broadway starring roles include High Society, Anna Karenina, Dracula, The Musical, Amour, and Irving Berlin's White Christmas. She has six Drama Desk Award nominations including Best Actress in a Play for Candida and is the recipient of a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical (Michel Legrand's Amour), four Outer Critics Circle Awards, five Drama League Awards, two Helen Hayes Award nominations and the Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in One Touch of Venus. She was the first musical actress to receive the "Outstanding Lead Actress" Lortel Award when the category combined plays and musicals and is the only performer in the over-twenty-year history of The City Center Encores! series to win an award for their work. In 2016, she returned to City Center for another triumph in the Rodgers-Sondheim musical Do I Hear A Waltz? winning rave reviews, such as "an exquisite interpretation".

Notable roles

Television

Variety Magazine included Errico in its list of potential 2016 Emmy Awards contenders for her role on Showtime's Billions. She also played the recurring role of Catherine on Season One of The Knick and was a series regular on Darren Star's Central Park West.

Errico has appeared in pilots for new shows:

Film

In 2013, Errico recorded the theme song for the movie Max Rose which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. The soundtrack features an original score by Michel Legrand and Errico sang the main title track, "Hurry Home".

Solo albums

Cast albums

Miscellaneous recordings

Errico's recording of a song from David Shire's new musical "Table" was aired in April 2015 on NPR radio on The Jonathan Schwartz show for WYNC.

Concerts

Her appearances include concerts at The Kennedy Center Opera House, Avery Fisher/David Geffen Music Hall, Wolf Trap, Severance Hall, 54 Below, Joe's Pub at The Public Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center and Café Carlyle. She reprised her performance as Venus at City Center Encores! Broadway Bash! in November 2001. Errico made her London debut in May 2008 singing in "Jerry Herman's Broadway" at the London Palladium. She has taken part in three Symphony Space Wall to Wall events to commemorate Stephen Sondheim, Kurt Weill & Richard Rodgers in NYC. In November 2015, she debuted her new one-woman show at Joe's Pub, New York co-written with close collaborator Adam Gopnik. Errico has sung with such symphonies as The Cleveland Orchestra, The National Symphony Orchestra, The London Philharmonic, The Utah Symphony, The Brussels Philharmonic, and has toured with conductors Marvin Hamlisch (NSO) and Michael Tilson Thomas (New World Symphony). She appeared in March 2016 at Lincoln Center in a Judy Garland concert moderated by Adam Gopnik.

Personal life

She has 2 siblings – Mike Errico and Melanie Errico. She met her husband, former tennis professional and ESPN sports commentator Patrick McEnroe when they were in grade school together. They married 19 December 1998 at the Holy Trinity Church on W. 82nd Street. The couple has three daughters.

Writing

Errico has written lyrics – "Gentle Child" appears on her 2008 solo recording, "Lullabies and Wildflowers" and authored "Musings" – which details the chronology of her album Legrand Affair. She was principal speaker at the Annual Broadway Blessing in 2013.

She has also penned columns in The New York Times discussing returning to ingenue roles later in life and her experience as a headliner performer on a themed cruise..

Philanthropy

Errico founded the original Bowery Babes in 2005 and maintains her seat on the Board of Directors for this New York based non-profit 501-c3 organization. Errico sang on June 1, 2015 at Merkin Concert Hall in support of The Ali Forney Center, the nation's largest and most comprehensive organization dedicated to homeless LGBT youth.