“The Story of a Rose” A Musical Reverie on the Great War

Music Director Tedd Firth
Directed by Lisa Shriver
Associate script supervisor: David Rigano

Discounts are available to military, veterans, first responders, students, and seniors

In a unique mix of beautiful song and brilliant speech, the inimitable actress and author Melissa Errico relates the story of the too-often-overlooked epoch of World War One, in all its many-sided American complexity, in an original musical presentation produced by The Doughboy Foundation. A sparkling, orchestral one-woman concert with evocative visuals, ravishing period costumes, and an all-star jazz ensemble, “The Story of a Rose” is both stylish entertainment and a deep reflection on a war we must not forget. As ever, Melissa’s touch will be intelligent and sensual, as she narrates her subject with the deep resonance of a mother of three teenagers, the same age today as the soldiers whose lives she sings.

Watch a short preview of the show

From the arrival of Italian and Jewish immigrants before the war to the birth of distinctly American song during it, from the flight from Europe in the ‘oughts’’ of the twentieth century to the return of American soldiers to Europe in the teens — from the nascent glories of Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern to the great Harlem Hellfighters and their introduction of American jazz to France right on the battlefields of the Western Front – every face of the Great War, the people who lived through it, and, above all, the music that they sang , will come alive. Using her own great Aunt Rose as her avatar, and the Ziegfeld Follies that Rose starred in as a frame, Melissa recreates the songs and hopes and loves of the people of the time.

Under the musical direction of the great jazz pianist Tedd Firth and his big-band period ensemble, Melissa will share wartime tunes of patriotism and protest,loss and longing, from “Oh, How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning!” to “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier”, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” to a soaring “They Didn’t Believe Me,” all ending in a rousing chorus of “God Bless America” – a song Berlin wrote for the First World War. Acclaimed Broadway actor/musician George Abud assists in a variety of onstage roles.

Throughout, Melissa tell us the story of her Rose, her Aunt—a story of a family legend , by turns mischievous and melancholy,  that becomes the story of a lost time. “Music”, she declares affirmatively, “is the one force that can connect our private memories to our common history. Every time we sing their songs, the people of a lost time live again.” “The Story Of A Rose” will make the stage ring with history, and with hope.

The Doughboy Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, supports and encourages planning and execution of programs, projects, and activities commemorating and educating the public on America’s role in World War I, “The War that Changed the World.” The Foundation encourages private & educational organizations, Federal, State, and local governments, and all individual Americans to Keep Faith with the American Doughboys and every American who served in World War I. The Foundation’s three-fold mission: Commemorate the experience of those Americans who served; Honor the 4.7 million Americans who put on the uniform to answer the call of their country; Inspire 21st-century Americans and all future generations to learn about, remember, and understand how WWI transformed our country and the world. The Doughboy Foundation has worked in partnership with the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission to build the new National World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C. Following the September 30 sunsetting of the Centennial Commission, the Doughboy Foundation continues its mission of stewardship for the National World War I Memorial, and the remembrance of all
those who served and sacrificed in World War I.

Actress, recording artist and author Melissa Errico has been called, at her Carnegie Hall debut in 2022, “a unique force in the life of the New York theater– there’s no on one quite like her!” A Tony-nominated actress for her mentor Michel Legrand’s “Amour” on Broadway – and star of such Broadway musicals as “My Fair Lady”, “High Society”, “White Christmas”, “Les Miserables” & more— she has come into her distinct own in recent years with concerts and cabarets touring the world that spin together vital and witty talk with the sublime singing that had Opera News dub her “The Maria Callas of the American musical theater.”

Stephen Sondheim and Legrand, among others, have been the subjects of her solo concerts – her 2019 album “Sondheim Sublime” was called, by the Wall Street Journal, “The finest solo Sondheim album ever recorded” . But she has also recently appeared asMrs. Patrick Campbell in the play “Dear Liar” at the Irish Rep and premiered the role of Eleanor of Aquitaine last fall in an unforgettable concert at the Metropolitan Museum’s Cloisters, singing a new David Shire/Adam Gopnik musical penned for her. In addition, she writes regularly about the comic twists and turns in the life of a performer for The New York Times, in a series dubbed by the newspaper “Scenes From An Acting Life.” From Paris, where she appeared last summer with her frequent concert mate Isabelle Georges at the Bal Blomet, to London, where she is a regular at Crazy Coqs cabaret – from the Elysée Palace to the stages of Cadogan Hall, Montreal Jazz Festival and Carnegie Hall – she brings her inimitable mind, spirit, voice and soul to audiences around the world.

About Tedd Firth

Tedd Firth is a New York City based musical director, jazz pianist and arranger. He currently serves as the musical director for Marilyn Maye, Bernadette Peters, Michael Feinstein, Brian Stokes Mitchell and, of course, Melissa Errico. His work as a musical director has included the reunion of the original Broadway cast of “Into The Woods” at the Segerstrom Center For The Arts in Costa Mesa, CA as well as serving as musical director for Michael Feinstein’s “Jazz and Popular Song” concert series at Jazz at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. His arrangements have recently been featured by the Boston Pops and the New York Pops orchestras; and on many of Melissa’s solo studio albums Sondheim Sublime (Warner Music), Legrand Affair Deluxe: The Music of Michel Legrand (Warner Music), the award-winning Out of The Dark: The Film Noir Project (Warner Music), and the new Sondheim In The City (Concord 2024) which Gramophone Magazine UK said “…takes the musical theater compilation album to another level” and The New York Times called “a New York house tour of thrill and heartbreak.”

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