Broadway star Melissa Errico brings a night of dark romance to the Carpenter Center
The Carpenter Center will turn into a sexy and romantic old-style Hollywood lounge as Tony Award-nominated singer Melissa Errico brings music inspired by noir films to the Long Beach stage during a pair of shows dubbed "A Noir Romance."
The Nov.13-14 concerts are part of the venue's Cabaret Series, the Center's most intimate performance experience where the audience sits on tables on the stage just a few feet from the artist. It's a fitting setting for a night of music in which Errico will sing sensual songs about ill-fated romances, mystery, obsessions and thwarted dreams, which were themes found in noir films.
"It's a dark and sexy night," Errico said. "It has everything to do with a fantasy, of being in love with the wrong person, of taking a wrong turn in your life, of walking down city streets and hearing a lonely trumpet or saxophone."
She'll be adding to the fantasy of the night by dressing in a classic Hollywood style inspired by film icon Rita Hayworth, who starred in several films in the noir era. Her goal is to make people feel as if they're in a smoke-filled jazz club in New York city.
"As an entertainer, as an interpretive singer, a cabaret and jazz singer I think of this as my sexy lingerie that I don't get to bring out very often," Errico said.
Errico has starred on Broadway in shows like "My Fair Lady" "High Society," "Dracula," and "Les Misérables." She also has had a lifelong love of American noir movies from the 1940s, which she watched nightly during the pandemic.
This rekindled passion led to her 2022 album "Out Of The Dark: The Film Noir Project," which includes songs from noir classics, like the 1944 murder mystery film "Laura" and the1952 drama "The Bad and The Beautiful," as well as original tunes. Errico will be performing songs from this album at the Long Beach show.
She'll also be taking on the role of a femme fatale to add more authenticity to the spirit of the night. It's a persona she developed while watching noir films at night during the pandemic while her family slept.
"When the kids were in bed I opened my laptop and I sort of walked into these noir movies. In one level I'm here and in the other I'm not here, I'm there, I'm a noir heroine and I walked myself into this other world. This is the foundation of my concert, if sort of winky and funny, it's like a housewife who has gone into her noir film," she said.
A Noir Romance
When:
Where: The Carpenter Center, 6200 E Atherton St, Long Beach
Tickets: $58.75-$68.75
