WBGO Interview: Tony Award-nominated actress, singer and writer Melissa Errico will perform a WWI-themed tribute concert in honor of her Aunt Rose

On May 7, Tony Award-nominated Broadway actress, singer and writer and Manhattan native Melissa Errico will perform The Story of a Rose: A Musical Reverie on The Great War at the Schlesinger Center in Alexandria, VA..

Errico has since dazzled audiences with performances in Dracula, Les Misérables, High Society, White Christmas and more, debuting new works at The Met Cloisters and Carnegie Hall, sharing stages with Alec Baldwin, Jerry Stiller and many others.

Melissa Errico joined WBGO’s Doug Doyle to talk about the special concert that’s tribute to love and sacrifice and her special connection to her Aunt Rose, a Ziegfeld Follies star and Italian immigrant living through World War I.

“My mother always said you know we have a Ziegfeld girl in the family. I knew my grandmother better, who was her sister. (As young teens, they were both seamstresses sewing uniforms for soldiers.) Aunt Rose wanted my mother to be her daughter so she was drawn to our family. My mother is the youngest of a large family and grew up in Brooklyn. I come from Italian families on both sides. My Aunt Rose always wanted a child. So I grew up with this strange image of this great showgirl who was also kind of obsessed with my mother. She was gorgeous. There were pictures around the house of this showgirl, pictures of her with feathers. She was an interesting character in my life. But to be honest, I didn’t really get into digging about who she really was until I started working with Stephen Sondheim. He wrote a musical called Follies, about Follies girls who come back to the New Amsterdam Theater.”

The show (7:30pm) is presented by the Gary Sinise Foundation (Lt. Dan Taylor in Forrest Gump, CSI:NY, Apollo 13) and produced by The Doughboy Foundation.

Melissa would mention her Aunt Rose and other stories during her Sondheim concerts and that caught the attention of a military commission who asked her to create this event.

The Story of a Rose: A Musical Reverie on The Great War is under the musical direction of acclaimed jazz pianist Tedd Firth and his big-band period ensemble. During the show, Errico will perform songs of patriotism and protest, loss and longing.

→ Read the entire article on the WBGO website.

Get tickets for The Story of A Rose here.  80% discounts for military, veterans, and First Responders tickets are available, as well as other discounts for students and senior citizens. 

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