By Andrew Gans
27 Nov 2009

	James Clow with Melissa Errico
	photo by Joan Marcus

Question: You didn't know this movie, but were there other holiday movies that were a tradition growing up?
Errico: Well, Christmas itself — I'm a real Christmas girl. Now that I have the kids, it's even more. But I've always had a tree, always made a big deal out of decorating the house... I grew up in Manhasset — we believe in Santa. We'd actually leave cookies and a beer for Santa, and I never thought that was weird. [Laughs.] We always left him a beer! I do remember that my brother once asked for barbells, and I remember hearing out my window them being dropped and someone saying, "Shit!" [Laughs.] They used to hide [the presents] in the garage and then bring them in. I remember that sound when you drop barbells on cement in the suburbs. I just remember that sound as the breaking of the fantasy. I don't think my parents ever openly admitted that there's no Santa! [Laughs.] We're all approaching 40 and my parents are still like, "Well, there's no presents because he didn't come yet."

Question: How old are your girls now?
Errico: Nine-month-old twins and a three-year-old.

Question: What are your thoughts about going back to doing eight shows a week?
Errico: Well, look, the costume fits. Just! [Laughs.] The fitting was interesting. That famous red dress is tight. My feelings are it's amazing that I was so big this time last year with the twins. I was carrying twins, and I carried them full term. At this time last year, I couldn't walk. They weren't even born. They were born at Thanksgiving.

Question: What's it like giving birth to twins?
Errico: Weird. It's too much. Giving birth to one, I named her Victoria… I'm part of a mothers' group, where all we talk about is boobs and things you don't wanna know. [Laughs.] I'll try to remember who I'm talking to, because I can just go there. But it's such a tremendous feeling to have a child. It's so exciting, and it's just gratitude. You have no control. You don't know how it's going to go, you don't know who it is, you don't know what you're getting. You just feel so small. It's like when you're faced with something beautiful in nature, like if you look at the sky, and it's almost too much beauty. That's how you feel with children. There's too much beauty and, in my case, too much gratitude. Really, to get this show is too much. I don't know that I ever appreciated anything as much as I do these years.

Question: I know you've also been working on a new album.
Errico: Before Victoria was born I had the Michel Legrand record, which still exists. It's this incredible monster, this big orchestral CD. I got pregnant. I never felt I got the vocals right, and I never felt that Phil Ramone and all of the wonderful people involved really had me at my best. We just kept putting it down every now and then. And I did a lullabies record. Maybe it has something to do with baby booms or something, but Universal Records picked it up. So I put the Legrand thing aside and released that CD. And then a symphony booker started booking me all over the place, so I started touring with Marc Kudisch, Debbie Gravitte, Hugh Panaro, Ron Raines. I did all of these symphonies with Susan Egan… and these are world-class amazing concerts. We did the National Symphony, and we did the Royal Philharmonic in London with Angela Lansbury, Debbie Gravitte, Ron Raines — unbelievable. And that was the Jerry Herman one.

So I was doing those concerts and then Richard Jay-Alexander, who had cast me in Les Miz — he's still a friend, so from time to time when I'm at a crossroads or if something's not going well, sometimes we meet or sometimes I ask him his advice. I never would have thought he'd want to work with me on a concert. In the last five or ten years he's really taken off as the stars' guy. Now that we're working together he says, "Well, I would have done this years ago, but you never asked." I never would have dared. So this year I did ask. He was saying I could create my own concert, just to work on it and get an idea what it would be. Either a big fundraiser or something with other people, just to get an idea what the repertoire would be for myself. These symphony concerts are starting to ask me for my own charts. Michael Tilson Thomas hired me to be his only soloist. That was kind of a wakeup call. That was this Valentine's Day. I don't have my own charts, and I don't know how to do my own show. He was in a squeeze, and he went from a Valentine's concert with no singer to thinking, "I think I want a singer." I got the job, and I had never met him. I've been kind of fitting into a world where I'm singing "Think of Me" or West Side Story, a lot of My Fair Lady, all in the original keys. So the natural evolution of this is, as you get a reputation, people start asking you… "Let's have Melissa for Valentine's Day." I'm in front of a huge audience with one of the great conductors of our country, and I don't have a chart. After, that's when I did speak with Richard. That's kind of the catalyst. It's not like every conductor in the world is asking me, but we were a great success that night. It was one of my first concerts since the baby was born. It was in Miami, and I made a lot of jokes how it was my first night in a hotel room with my husband and no kids. It became like a running gag that I might get laid also as well as doing a great concert on Valentine's Day, so it became very saucy. Michael Tilson Thomas is very academic and wonderfully brilliant, and I just got really silly with him. It was good and it was enough for me to wonder, may I ever be given that chance again, I should probably use charts. Richard and I have been working on a concert all summer. I did text him while I was getting my hair colored. I said, "Look, I got an audition for White Christmas. What do you think?" He wrote back, "I like it." His support is really playing a role right now. It's a new chapter for me. I don't really know what's coming. I'm not the ingénue anymore. I'm older, I do have kids, but I don't want to walk away. I love this so much. I have to figure out some other things. Concert and singing will be other work.

Question: A lot of Broadway performers, it seems, do concert work — a really good way to keep doing your art when not in shows, which don't come along all that often.
Errico: You're right. You look at all the amazing stars who aren't, at the moment, working. The concerts and cabarets and stuff — that's a great place to tell stories and sing. So he and I are working. He is helping with the other producer, Phil Ramone, and we are doing the Michel Legrand record. I was in the studio all day yesterday.

Question: Is there a target date for the CD?
Errico: The target has changed. There are all these targets in life. Now the target is to make it really great. I don't know if it's family or just getting older, but targets change. I just want to do it right and well and be patient. I'm not really rushing for anything anymore.

Question: When you have three kids, I would imagine your priorities change.
Errico: There's no hurry. What's left is I still want to do it. I still want to be a part of things, and I'm interested to see that in myself. I get out there and I'm on these symphony stages or in an audition. I remember even at the interview, it has to feel like I'm at the right place. I don't want to feel uncomfortable or like I'm wanting something more than I have. That's not me anymore. I'm not sure if that's what I was like when I was younger, but I know that I really wanted to fit in and I really was excited. You know, when you're young, you really want to show you're competent. You really want to earn it. You push yourself really hard. I'll always be hard on myself and I'll always want to do a really good job, but my personal satisfaction is peacefulness and just wanting everyone around me to have fun and slow down. Maybe it's when you become a mother, you really just want people around you to be content more than you want it for yourself. I want the experience of contentment in my life. It's a shift in the way I think, and it really only can come with years and wisdom. Maybe, in my case, it comes with having my heart living outside myself. I really don't have a lot of time to sweat the small stuff.

Question: I think that comes with age. You realize what is worth getting aggravated over and what is not.
Errico: Show business is tough. If you buy into what you don't have and what you want and all that… Maybe because of the kids, I really put it beyond the backburner. I just put it aside. Your body goes through so much. It's so medical, and it's so profound. You can't really have babies and plan to get back into show business. At least I didn't do that. I went to babyland. I bought a ticket and didn't have a return. I really want to parent them. We'll see, in the big picture, how I'll manage. I'm glad I waited to be in my mid-thirties to start. I do take White Christmas as a lovely sign of encouragement that I can maybe have some of my artistic dreams filled.

[Irving Berlin's White Christmas plays the Marquis Theatre, 1535 Broadway. Tickets are available by calling Ticketmaster at (877) 250-2929 and (212) 307-4100 or by visiting www.ticketmaster.com. For more information visit www.whitechristmasbroadway.com.]

Well, that's all for now. Happy diva-watching! E-mail questions or comments to agans@playbill.com.