INTERVIEW: Broadway star Melissa Errico releases new single with Michel Legrand

There’s no denying that acclaimed singer Melissa Errico and composer/songwriter Michel Legrand make beautiful music together. Their latest collaboration is the digital single “Hurry Home,” which is now available from Ghostlight Records.

The tune was originally composed for Jerry Lewis’ last movie, and Errico and Legrand decided to jazz it up and make it more intimate and acoustic. In many ways, the lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman are perfectly timed for the holidays and new year because they speak of families coming together and communities gathering.

Errico is a legendary singer who has graced many a Broadway stage. Among her credits are Amour (Legrand’s Broadway musical), My Fair Lady, Sunday in the Park With George and Camelot. Her recording efforts have given fans many albums, including What About Today? Live at 54 Below, More Lullabies & Wildflowers and Legrand Affair, featuring her collaborations with Legrand. 

Recently, Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Errico about her new single. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.

What can fans expect on the new single “Hurry Home”?

“Hurry Home” is a really evocative song that is somehow both deeply satisfying and somehow mournful. It must be Alan and Marilyn Bergman’s unique gift as lyricists that they can write words that allow for a complete inventory of life — joyful and wistful, almost at the same time. “Hurry Home” is also the first song I have ever recorded that is accompanied by an official music video!

I got to work with a filmmaker I had dreamed of working with, Gary Gardner. Making the video as we did, there was no place to hide. It was just me and the song, alone in intimate black and white. The director created a space for all my thoughts. It was inspired by the photograph that Brigitte Lacombe took for the album art, and we had such a good time filming it.

“Hurry Home” is such a true Legrand melody, and … a new one! There’s just the sheer beauty of any melody he writes. It’s just awe-inspiring to sense how he balances melodic ease with intricacy. It’s his magic, and this new song is no exception.

What do you like about Michel Legrand’s music?

I actually cannot over-emphasize my affection for his music and the physical experience I have always had, even since I was a child, singing his songs. My father, a concert pianist and orthopedic surgeon, used to play Legrand’s music between his long practice sessions of [Sergei Rachmaninoff] and [Frédéric] Chopin. My mother always used to transform and come into the living room, enraptured. I saw a chemical change in my house with those melodies in the air.

And let’s not forget the words! The lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman have collaborated with Michel for so long, written decades of stunning songs. I have met them and respect them so much. When we made the big orchestral album after Amour, Michel got on the phone one day in my apartment.

“ALAN, Alan! I want a new verse for ‘You Must Believe In Spring’ for Melissa. Please.”

I have the original fax that came through the very next day with their new verse, one that reflected a post-9/11 world and the role of hope. Michel’s music is itself — is ravishingly emotional, sad and sexy simultaneously. The phrases in his music always revolve, turn back in on themselves.

“Windmills” is a good metaphor for them all. As an arranger, he is fearless — if perhaps a bit over the top at times, but it would be untrue to his essence to reel him in. The arrangements on “Affair” are gorgeous and enveloping — with a 100-piece symphony. Michel had a clear inspiration for our work, which he described an “intime et enorme.” Michel is a thrilling artist. Watching him on a bandstand or in a rehearsal, as I did on Broadway, he is in his own world, out of sync with normal people in a way, but lifting us out of anything ordinary. He flies his own airplane, in every sense.

When did you know a life in music and acting was a life for you?

I was about 12 when I knew this was my dream. When I saw the musical A Chorus Line, I realized that people from all places, all kinds, could find a home in musicals. I felt allowed — and inspired — to try to join the community. 

 

Do you like the intimacy of a cabaret club like 54/Below or the grandness of a Broadway stage?

I love them both. I find them both opportunities to make a connection.  

What qualities in a role or production do you look for before committing to a musical?

I look for a person, a whole person. I don’t judge what kind of person. I love getting into another woman’s circumstances and looking into her choices and desires, mistakes and passions.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Melissa Errico’s new single, “Hurry Home,” with music by Michel Legrand and lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, is now available from Ghostlight Records. Click here for more information.