Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Nightlife roundup: MELISSA ERRICO celebrates love via the Great American Songbook, CONSTANCE HAUMAN falls into now

• By drediman
• February 17, 2026
• No Comments

Over the past week or so, I was able to soak in the alluring performances of a pair of divas of New York’s storied nightlife scene. As always, read on for my thoughts on these beguiling late night excursions of cabaret revelry.

MELISSA ERRICO: LOST IN HIS ARMS
Birdland Jazz Club

This past weekend, I spent some time with the fabulous and gorgeous Melissa Errico, who returned to perform at Birdland for the fourth consecutive Valentine’s Day weekend. Entitled Lost in His Arms (RECOMMENDED), this year’s show featured love-themed songs with broad appeal culled from the Broadway and popular songbooks. Over the years, the Broadway star turned sensuous nightclub performer has grown increasingly in confidence on the far more intimate and unforgiving cabaret spotlight. This time around was no exception. Throughout, Errico was in cheerful spirits and truly fine voice, effortlessly finessing through songs by the likes of Michel Legrand, Rodgers and Hart, Joni Mitchell, and Lerner and Loewe. Some of the jazz-tinged concert’s highlights included the titular “Lost in His Arms”, an emotionally searching “The Windmills of Your Mind” (one of Errico’s go to standards), a moving re-orientation of “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her (His) Face”, and a supremely witty “Dancing on the Ceiling”. Expertly accompanied by music director Andy Ezrin on piano and Brian Koonin on guitar — who played alongside a swinging rhythm section — the evening was ultimately notable for being a satisfying and infectious ode to the Great American Songbook, which Errico has emerged as one of the unofficial keepers of, particularly in the world of cabaret.

CONSTANCE HAUMAN: FALLING INTO NOW
Joe’s Pub

On a recent rather chilly night, I was also able to nightcap with Constance Hauman in a late night showing entitled Falling Into Now (RECOMMENDED) at Joe’s Pub. If you’ve never heard of the the versatile and genre-busting artist — whose eclectic career has straddled opera (finding particular success in the form in Europe), pop, cabaret, musical theater, film, and beyond — it’s probably because she exists in a stylistic bubble that defies categorization. In her recent cabaret show, Hauman performed a collection of emotive and thoughtfully-written original songs from her various albums that evoked rage, sorrow, poetic introspection. Indeed, in nearly all respects, Falling Into Now (the title of which coincides with her breakthrough 2015 album) was a moody yet soulful night of song, including such creations as “Dark Angel”, “Burn the House Down”, “Bells of St. Merri”, “High Tides”, and the show’s titular song. There was also defiant celebration in the air, which came via “One Nation Under the Groove”, which Hauman triumphantly put over with Blue Eye Extinction. As a singer, Hauman is an organic blend of pop star (along the lines of Annie Lennox), a jazz chanteuse, and (of course) an opera diva. Throughout the evening, her music-making — which she largely led from the piano — was invariably accomplished, particularly as accompanied by musicians such as Ross Pederson, Julia Adamy, JS Williams, Huck Tim, James Jones, Henry Ott, and special guests Everett Bradley and George Clinton.