Some time ago when performers—usually women—sensationally debuted on Broadway, they were acclaimed the following morning as “the toast of the town.” For its first several years The Ed Sullivan Show was even known as Toast of the Town. But now, maybe because we live in more parlous times, the phrase has fallen into disuse. Nonetheless, there’s no good reason not to revive it.
One of the last hearty Manhattan toasts raised was in salute to Melissa Errico. She’d wowed ’em not that very long ago in the Encores! series One Touch of Venus revival. A smart, talented and unquestionably luxurious performer, she has continued to deserve gallant toasts ever since, while concentrating on cabaret turns. Why musicals haven’t been written for her remains a mystery.
Perhaps they have. Truth to report, she’s written one for herself, Out of the Dark The Film Noir Project. Mesmerized for some time by the 1940s film noir genre—the Out of the Dark title is a spin on the film noir Robert Mitchum-Jane Greer-Kirk Douglas classic Out of the Past—the intrepid Errico stars herself in a singing-speaking film-noir-centric outing. She’s aided only by ingenious pianist Tedd Firth (all arrangements his), saxophonist David Mann, guitarist Russ Malone, bassist David Finck, and drummer Eric Halvorsen.
To prove her intentions, Errico arrives on stage in a (you-guessed-it) slinky gown (Eric Winterling, the designer), her long, wavy, dark hair just about falling over her left eye. Film noir enthusiasts in the audience—or reading this—will recognize that, consciously or not, she’s conjuring memories of ’40s sex goddess Veronica Lake. How cunning, how appropriate!
Salting her explanations with, say, mention of French commentator Nino Frank, who named the developing trend—apparently that’s why we stick to “film noir” and not “dark movies”—she strikes an attitude important to the movie actresses who took on these often tough-women roles. She pays attention in her demeanor to actresses who, like Susan Hayward, might ask a confused lover whether he’s a man or a mouse. She recalls actresses who defiantly held their hands on their hips, who always knew where their defining key light was.
Among the songs she chooses that fit her film-noir convictions are “Angel Eyes” (Matt Dennis-Earl Brent), “Laura” (David Raksin-Johnny Mercer), “The Bad and the Beautiful” (Raksin-Dory Previn), “Sooner or Later” (Stephen Sondheim), “The Gentleman Is a Dope“ (Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein II), “Blame It on My Youth” (Oscar Levant-Edward Heyman), and a poetic new one, “Shadows and Light” (David Shire-Adam Gopnik).
Notably, the songs are not strictly plucked from films noir. Yes, ubiquitous film noir maven Eddie Muller may take issue, but the are songs Errico insists embody film-noir aspects. Incidentally, during Errico’s 9-performance Birdland stay, she’s mixing up the song list with what Firth and she have amassed as 45 film-noir candidates
Errico has been doing Out of the Dark for a year or two, and aside from changing the inclusions from night to night, she still seems to be deciding how she wants finally to shape the format. As of this opening, she was on top of things for two-thirds of the way. Then her control began to loosen. She joked around and introduced a few new songs that landed below the level she’d established.
And there was one earlier lyric glitch. In the Raksin-Mercer “Laura” she sang—twice—“She gave her very first kiss to you.” Mercer wrote “She gave your very first kiss to you.” Therefore, she changes the meaning, a change that might not matter in less specific circumstances, but here, where the female siren is being exalted, it suddenly upends that shady lady’s calculated objections. Perhaps the alteration was/is deliberate. If so, it would be interesting to know why.
But maybe that’s just a cabaret reviewer nitpicking. The much better gesture is to say, on the basis of the imaginative and evocative Out of the Dark, let’s once again raise a toast to Melissa Errico.
Melissa Errico A Noir Romance opened February 10, 2023, at Birdland and runs through February 14. Tickets and information: birdlandjazz.com
