Sad Songs That Evoke Smiles and Other Surprises at 54 Below

Melissa Errico/Billy Stritch, ‘Swing Lessons’ Livestreaming August 6 at 54below.com/events/livestream-melissa-errico-with-billy-stritch-swing-lessons/Starring a Broadway leading lady, Melissa Errico, and a veteran singer/pianist/musical director, Billy Stritch, “Swing Lessons” is a dynamic blend of the extrovert and the introvert, the obvious and the subtle, the larger-than-life and the highly intimate. It livestreams tonight from 54 Below. Mr. Stritch started Friday’s show by bounding on stage (with bassist Tom Hubbard) in a bright blue sequined blazer that could have been borrowed from the Liberace museum, and playing Kenny Rankin’s “Haven’t We Met,” a fast and swinging jazz waltz. He is soon joined by Ms. Errico, in a matching blue sequined gown, who enters with “The Song Is You,” an even more classic song frequently used as an opener. In calling the show “Swing Lessons,” it’s not as if Ms. Errico is trying to reinvent herself as Ella Fitzgerald — though there is a well-done scat interjection in this first number. Rather, like the late Barbara Cook when she appeared on this stage a few years ago, she wants to add a new dimension to her work. She also wants to offer a lighter show as a balm for this sweaty summer moment, a time when it feels like a tremendous ordeal just to get on the D train and head down to Columbus Circle. Ms. Errico has devoted much of the last decade to more epic presentations of Stephen Sondheim and Michel Legrand, and one thing that those two now-late giants are not is light and zippy.Both composers are represented here, albeit in surprising ways. The title song from the long-forgotten 1970 movie “Pieces of Dreams,” by Michel Legrand with Alan and Marilyn Bergman, is usually performed as a big and dramatic number, commensurate with the film’s tagline, “A love story that will shock you.” More recently, the song’s title has been changed to the first line, “Little Boy Lost.” Because Ms. Errico and Mr. Stritch performed it as a swinging, uptempo number — with a whole different attitude, now more optimistic than melancholy — it sounds like a wholly different song, and fittingly deserves a new title.That turned out to be a recurring theme: Songs that are usually performed in a more contemplative, reflective style were more upbeat and outgoing, like “I Got Lost in His Arms,” the big ballad from “Annie Get Your Gun.” As always, “Sleepin’ Bee” was both a healing balm and a lullaby, but a highly ebullient, joyful one. For two songs associated with Julie Andrews, “Loverly” and “My Favorite Things,” Mr. Stritch and his bassist laid down chords and a beat reminiscent of Andre Previn and his classic series of jazz-goes-Broadway albums.Mr. Stritch soloed with Jobim’s “Meditation,” proving that every bossa nova can serve as a summer samba. There also was a juicy medley from Rodgers and Hart’s “On Your Toes,” which Ms. Errico consistently cites as the first Broadway show she attended (the hit 1982 revival); on “There’s a Small Hotel,” the dynamics between Mr. Stritch and Ms. Errico recall those of everybody’s favorite long-running singer-pianist/singer couple, Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano, a Saturday evening institution at Birdland.A memorable mashup of Sondheim (“Good Thing Going”) and Berlin (“What’ll I Do”) required one to have eagle eyes and ears to stay on top of the key and tempo changes. The other Sondheim lyric here, “Small World,” is among the most gloriously understated love songs in the musical theater canon, and thus fit in perfectly. The big finish was “Old Devil Moon”; the encore was a remarkably low key “Make Someone Happy.” Curiously, it was the sad songs that made me smile the most, like “Lost in his Arms” and “Glad to Be Unhappy.” To quote what Nicole Kidman says before every movie at an AMC theater, “Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this.”

Sad Songs That Evoke Smiles and Other Surprises at 54 Below

Sad Songs That Evoke Smiles and Other Surprises at 54 Below

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