motherhood | Cooking With Fire

Photo from www.melissaerrico.com

Ron and I had the tremendous pleasure last night of seeing Melissa Errico, actress and superb singer, in a one-woman show at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor entitled “Funny! I’m a Woman with Children…“. Ron had seen her perform here in the Hamptons previously, but I had only heard her CD entitled Legrand Affair which was a spectacular collaboration with Michel Legrand, one of Melissa’s lifetime musical idols.

I was excited to see her in person as I have met her husband, Patrick McEnroe, a number of times through our mutual friend, Monte. Melissa and Patrick share a loving twenty year marriage and they have three beautiful girls – all of whom Melissa talked about in the show with great love and devotion.

Photo from www.melissaerrico.com

To see Melissa in person was an absolute gift: sharing her warm personality, the intimacy of her stories about dating, romance, falling in love, motherhood, the importance of her girlfriends, marriage, career challenges, and so much more. She is tremendously talented and, in the words of Stephen Holden of the New York Times, “Melissa has the power to take a sumptuous Broadway ballad to the moon and back!” Her selection of songs was spectacular and we’re hoping that she records them on a CD in the near future so that we can savor the lyrics, the music, and her beautiful voice over and over again.

There are world-class performing and visual arts here in the Hamptons. The proximity to New York City draws extraordinary talent and while we’re here, we try to take in as much as we possibly can. We’d be crazy not to take full advantage of it.

In June of last year, we attended an excellent performance of Arthur Miller’s production of All My Sons at Guild Hall in East Hampton. The production featured a really strong cast and starred Hamptons local Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) and Laurie Metcalf (The Big Bang Theory and Roseanne). A difficult subject, the tragic play was about a successful businessman whose unethical practices during World War II resulted in aircraft equipment failure that hurt and killed air force personnel and ultimately destroyed his and his former partner’s life and family. It was flawlessly acted but the subject matter made it difficult to watch. It was, in a brief description, theatre at its best.

“All My Sons”

Last week, we attended the opening night, world-premiere performance of The Forgotten Woman at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor. This play is about a tremendously talented opera singer who is right at the cusp of fame and success in the opera world. As she steps into her own power, she must address core personal issues including her weight, conflict between motherhood and career, self-doubt and sexuality. Every performance was strong, but we felt that Ashlie Atkinson in the role of the opera singer, Margaret, was outstanding.

“The Forgotten Woman”

Last night, we attended the opening performance of The Underpants, adapted by Steve Martin from a 1910 German farce, at Guild Hall in East Hampton. We went with our actor, director and producer friend, Ian, and his friend, Birgit, from Cologne, Germany. Unlike the last two plays that we’ve seen, this was a wild satire, chock-full of sexual innuendo with lots of verbal and physical comedy. Ron and I thought the play was fun, was well-performed by the actors, and felt that we’d had a fun night of entertainment. I wouldn’t see it again, nor highly recommend it to others, but we felt it was definitely an enjoyable performance.

“The Underpants”

We’re looking forward to seeing whatever production is next and hope we’re able to attend!