Melissa Errico

• Born — 23 March 1970 • Birthplace — Manhattan, New York City • Occupation — Actress Singer Recording artist Writer • Education — Yale University (BA) • Years Active — 1982–present • Children — 3 • Website — melissaerrico.com

Born in New York City, Errico went to high school in Manhasset, New York, while taking dance lessons in Manhattan. Her father is an orthopedic surgeon and concert pianist. Her mother is a former teacher who now works as a sculptor. She began her professional career at 12, appearing on the syndicated children's TV series The Great Space Coaster. Errico's maternal grandmother was an opera singer. Her great-aunt Rose was a performer with the Ziegfeld Follies.

Errico is a graduate of Yale University. During her freshman year, Errico was asked to audition for the role of Cosette while trying out for a different show, and was cast. Errico took a leave of absence from Yale and performed in a tour of Les Misérables, then returned to complete a degree in art history and philosophy. Errico is also a graduate of the British American Drama Academy's 1991 Midsummer in Oxford Programme. Errico is a guest instructor at HB Studio.

Errico played Cosette in Les Misérables on a national tour. She also played Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady on Broadway, opposite Richard Chamberlain and Julian Holloway, at the Virginia Theater. She co-starred opposite Tyne Daly in the New York City Center Encores production of Call Me Madam. In 2002, Errico played the role of Dot/Marie in Sunday in the Park with George. The production ran at the Eisenhower Theater at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. from May 31 to June 28, and Errico's work was recognized with a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Leading Actress in a Musical. In 2003 she co-starred in the revival of the Wallace Shawn play Aunt Dan and Lemon at The New Group directed by Scott Ellis. In 2003 Errico also returned to the role of Eliza Doolittle, alongside John Lithgow and Roger Daltrey, for a production of My Fair Lady at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles; she also starred there in Camelot opposite Jeremy Irons and The Sound of Music with Marni Nixon as Mother Abbess. Other Broadway starring roles include High Society, Anna Karenina, Dracula The Musical, Amour, Oliver! and Irving Berlin's White Christmas. She is the recipient of a Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical (Michel Legrand's Amour), and a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in One Touch of Venus. In 2013 she co-starred as Clara in the Classic Stage Company production of Stephen Sondheim's Passion, earning a Drama Desk Award nomination for her performance. In 2016, she returned to the New York City Center stage for the Rodgers-Sondheim musical Do I Hear a Waltz?, for which she won rave reviews. She has also starred in several productions for Irish Repertory Theatre including the musical Finian's Rainbow and her Drama Desk Award-nominated performances in the plays The Importance of Being Earnest and Candida. At age 46, Errico returned to the ingenue role Sharon in the 2016 Irish Repertory Theatre production of Finian's Rainbow, an experience she chronicled in The New York Times; she also starred in their production of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever in 2018, which she also wrote about in The New York Times. Errico has been recognized as an interpreter of Stephen Sondheim's work, with Terry Teachout of The Wall Street Journal calling her 2018 album Sondheim Sublime "the best all-Sondheim album ever recorded". In 2022, The Wall Street Journal said her new album Out Of The Dark: The Film Noir Project "gives us noir music the way we imagine it...melancholy, bittersweet tales of isolation and loneliness, beauty and betrayal—especially relevant at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic...Ms. Errico sings throughout with a tone at once wistful and probing, suggesting that romance and mystery are but different sides of the same coin...we are breathing along with her, seeing what she sees, feeling what she feels...she makes it "uncommonly clear" that we are all silent partners in our own destruction, and that the most we can hope for is a few brief moments of tenderness".

Errico portrayed Alex Bartoli on Central Park West, and has had roles on episodes of Billions and The Knick. Errico has also appeared on The Jim Gaffigan Show, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, Law & Order, A Gifted Man, Ed, and Miss Match opposite Alicia Silverstone.

Errico has recorded solo albums and appeared on compilations and soundtracks as well as cast albums. Her solo albums include Legrand Affair, an album of music by Michel Legrand, produced by Phil Ramone and originally released in 2011; an expanded version with many new tracks, Legrand Affair: Deluxe Edition, appeared in 2019. In 2015 Broadway Records released What About Today? Melissa Errico – Live at 54 Below. She released two albums of music by Stephen Sondheim, Sondheim Sublime (2018) and Sondheim in the City (2024), the latter featuring Sondheim's songs about New York. In January 2026, Errico released I Can Dream, Can’t I?: Illusions and Conversations from the Great American Songbook, an album centered on intimate voice-and-piano arrangements with her longtime musical collaborator Tedd Firth. The recording draws from the Great American Songbook as well as songs associated with Peggy Lee, Sérgio Mendes and Joni Mitchell, including “When in Rome (I Do as the Romans Do),” “There’ll Be Another Spring,” “Like a Lover” and “Both Sides, Now.” A five-star review of the album in Stereophile described Errico as a “legit jazz singer with a cabaret artist’s sensibility” and a review in All About Jazz called her "one of the best at keeping classic songs alive."

• Blue Like That (Manhattan Records/EMI) produced by Arif Mardin – released February 25, 2003 • Lullabies & Wildflowers (Velour/Universal Records, later Ghostlight Records) produced by Rob Mathes – released April 29, 2008 • Legrand Affair (Ghostlight Records) produced by Phil Ramone – released October 18, 2011 • More Lullabies & Wildflowers (Ghostlight Records) – released June 23, 2015 • What About Today? Melissa Errico – Live at 54 Below (Broadway Records) – released October 16, 2015 • Sondheim Sublime (Ghostlight Records) – released November 2, 2018 • Legrand Affair: Deluxe Edition (Ghostlight Records) – released November 8, 2019 • Two Spring Songs for Summer – released July 10, 2020 • Out of The Dark: The Film Noir Project – released in 2022 • Sondheim In The City (Concord Theatricals Recordings, CT00148) – released in 2024 • I Can Dream, Can’t I?: Illusions and Conversations from the Great American Songbook – released January 30, 2026

• Call Me Madam – Encores Cast (1995) • High Society – Original Broadway Cast (1998) • Amour – Original Broadway Cast (2003) • Finian's Rainbow – Irish Repertory Theater Cast Recording (2004) • Sadie Thompson – World Premiere Recording (2005) • Anna Karenina – The Broadway Musical (2007) • One Touch of Venus – First Complete Recording (2014)

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. In November 2015, she debuted her new one-woman show at Joe's Pub, New York City, co-written with close collaborator Adam Gopnik. Errico has toured with conductor Marvin Hamlisch. In 2016 she appeared at the David Rubenstein Atrium, Lincoln Center, in a talk by Adam Gopnik about Judy Garland. She also performed at Lincoln Center for their American Songbook Series and at Jazz at Lincoln Center with Michael Feinstein. She has also performed with Feinstein at Carnegie Hall. In 2017 and 2018 she performed runs of her concert of the music of Stephen Sondheim throughout the U.S. and in London and in 2019, she starred as The Baker's Wife in a concert production of Sondheim's Into the Woods in Long Island. In 2019 she performed concerts featuring the music of Michel Legrand at the Fairmont San Francisco and in NYC at Feinstein's/54 Below. She was the sole American performer at the two-day memorial concert for Legrand in April, 2019 at Paris' Grand Rex and she also performed at London's Legrand memorial concert in September, 2019 at Royal Festival Hall. In 2019 she also performed the National Anthem at Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open. On March 22, 2020, to celebrate his 90th birthday, Guild Hall of East Hampton premiered her Stephen Sondheim concert on YouTube with an exclusive livestream. On November 18, 2022 Errico made her debut at Carnegie Hall, performing/co-starring with the New York Pops in their concert Broadway Blockbusters. In June 2023 Errico opened for George Benson at the Montreal International Jazz Festival at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier before a sold-out crowd of 3,000 people, singing a set of music by her mentor the late Michel Legrand. Of the performance, London Jazz News wrote “Errico was energized, making sure with every breath that she would get the audience in the 3000-seater Pelletier really on her side. Every high note was heroically held, and she got a standing ovation from this audience. Montreal audiences always want to show their warmth and this one made her deservedly welcome.” Added the Quebec Journal, in its review, "It was the Italian-American chanteuse Melissa Errico who was responsible for energizing the concert hall, and that she did, expressing herself as fluently in French as in English, and offering a memorable reprise of Legrand's "Valse des Lilas/Once Upon A Summertime." In 2023 and 2024 Errico and:fr: Isabelle Georges performed a concert program titled "Deux Grandes Dames" in London, Paris and New York focusing on the music of Michel Legrand. • Illustration — Melissa Errico at Birdland in 2025 (photo by Michael Hull) In 2025, Errico conceived, wrote and starred in The Story of a Rose: A Musical Reverie on the Great War, a concert combining family history, World War I history and early American popular music. The program drew on the story of Errico’s great-aunt, a Ziegfeld Follies performer, and incorporated music associated with Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, James Reese Europe and others. The production was presented in association with the Doughboy Foundation and the Gary Sinise Foundation. On June 2, 2025, Errico performed with her jazz trio at the Festa della Repubblica (Italian Republic Day celebration) hosted by the Consulate General of Italy in New York. On July 12, 2025 Errico made her London concert-hall debut at Cadogan Hall with Sondheim in the City Live!, focusing on the city-related music of Stephen Sondheim and drawing on her work with the composer. She was joined by Julian Ovenden, pianist Tedd Firth and musicians from Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. On July 12, 2026, she made her debut at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London with The Summer Knows, a concert celebrating the music of her longtime collaborator and mentor Michel Legrand. Playbill subsequently published a photo gallery that documented the performance, was titled "Melissa Errico Dazzles in Ronnie Scott's Debut in London," and noted that she "received an enthusiastic standing ovation." The concert continued her longstanding association with Legrand’s music, including the album Legrand Affair and performances at memorial concerts for the composer in Paris and London. On August 16, 2025, Errico appeared with Alec Baldwin in "The Fitzgeralds: A Reading With Music" at Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York. The program marked the centennial of The Great Gatsby and featured an original live score by Forrest Gray.

She has two 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 on December 19, 1998, at the Holy Trinity Church on W. 82nd Street. She lives in New York with their three daughters.

Errico's writing career has developed over the years alongside her work as an actress, singer and concert artist. Her essays and other writing have explored theater, music, New York life and the experience of performing. She has penned several columns in The New York Times since 2016 providing wry and illuminating takes on the performers' life. These include columns which discuss returning to ingenue roles later in life, her experience as a headliner performer on a themed cruise, gender politics, her time with composer Michel Legrand, the recent trend of home-taping for auditions, the process of digitally rehearsing and producing a full musical production of Meet Me in St. Louis during the COVID-19 pandemic, a costume fitting for her first live concert since the pandemic began, an essay about being on the road examining a performer's life, before and after the pandemic, and a profile piece on cabaret icon Marilyn Maye ahead of her 95th birthday and long-awaited Carnegie Hall debut. Errico added to her writings on Stephen Sondheim with a January 2026 contribution to the New York Times feature "5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Sondheim," which also included contributions from Judy Collins, Mandy Patinkin, Renée Fleming, Michael R. Jackson and Tony Kushner. Each contributor selected a work by Sondheim, and Errico chose "Finishing the Hat" from Sunday in the Park with George, writing about the relationship between Sondheim’s music and lyrics and the sacrifices involved in artistic creation. She also discussed her correspondence with Sondheim about interpreting the song from a woman’s perspective. Errico added to her writings on Stephen Sondheim with a January 2026 contribution to the New York Times feature "5 Minutes That Will Make You Love Sondheim," which also included contributions from Judy Collins, Mandy Patinkin, Renée Fleming, Michael R. Jackson and Tony Kushner. Each contributor selected a work by Sondheim, and Errico chose "Finishing the Hat" from Sunday in the Park with George, writing about the relationship between Sondheim’s music and lyrics and the sacrifices involved in artistic creation. She also discussed her correspondence with Sondheim about interpreting the song from a woman’s perspective. Later in 2026 she contributed a story to the Times feature "More New York stories from notable contributors helping to mark Metropolitan Diary's 50th anniversary." She wrote an expanded article on her experiences with Legrand, which was published in the French magazine:fr: La Règle du jeu. She has also written several essays for the wellness/lifestyle magazine The Purist. Errico was a principal speaker at the Annual Broadway Blessing in 2013.

Errico performed at Merkin Concert Hall in June 2015 to support the Ali Forney Center, which assists homeless LGBT youth. She has supported the non-profit arts organization Sing For Hope and non-profit camp SAY, for children who stutter. Errico appeared in Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration, a fundraiser for Artists Striving To End Poverty (ASTEP) in April 2020.

In 2006, Errico founded Bowery Babes, a New York-based mothers’ network that later became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Originating from a prenatal yoga group, the organization grew to more than 5,000 members and provided community resources and peer support concerning breastfeeding, postpartum depression, sleep, relationships and other issues affecting new parents. The group also organized children’s events and participated in relief efforts following Hurricane Sandy. In 2026, after 20 years of operation, Bowery Babes concluded its activities and marked its closure with a $20,000 donation to the Scarlett Fund for pediatric cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.