She was twelve years old, standing by the water fountain outside the science room at Buckley Country Day School in Roslyn, Long Island. The hallway was quiet. A boy four years older walked past, and their eyes met.

“There was this long pause,” Melissa Errico would later recall. “When we re-met in our 20s, we both remembered the moment by the water fountain.”

That boy was Patrick McEnroe, future tennis professional and brother of John McEnroe. Twenty years later, he would become her husband. But first, the girl with the kinky curly hair and tap shoes would become one of Broadway’s most celebrated leading ladies, a Tony-nominated actress, and what Opera News would call “The Maria Callas of the American musical theater.” Melissa Errico’s net worth today stands at approximately $5 million, built across 35 years of starring roles, acclaimed recordings, and a singular ability to find the ache inside a song.

What Is Melissa Errico’s Net Worth in 2025?

Melissa Errico’s net worth is estimated at $5 million in 2025. Unlike tech founders or real estate moguls, however, her fortune accumulated gradually through the economics of artistic excellence: Broadway salaries, national tours, concert fees, album royalties, television appearances, and writing income from her New York Times essay series. Significantly, the Wall Street Journal called her 2018 album “Sondheim Sublime” the finest solo Sondheim album ever recorded, establishing her as more than a performer—she became a keeper of the American songbook.

Diversified Income Streams

Furthermore, her income streams remain diversified and active. Errico tours constantly with thematic concerts that command premium ticket prices, from Carnegie Hall to London’s Cadogan Hall. Additionally, television appearances on shows like Billions, The Knick, and Blue Bloods supplement her theatrical work. Meanwhile, her New York Times essays about the performer’s life—collected under the heading “Scenes From An Acting Life”—are being developed into a book.

The Wound: A Doctor’s Daughter With Music in Her Blood

Melissa Errico was born on March 23, 1970, at New York Hospital, where her father—an orthopedic surgeon who also happened to be a concert pianist—delivered her himself. Initially, the family lived in Manhattan for five years while Dr. Michael Errico completed his medical residency and her Brooklyn-native mother taught school in Harlem. Notably, both parents were first-generation Italian-Americans, carrying the immigrant dreams of Mott Street and the Ziegfeld Follies in their family stories.

When they relocated to Manhasset, Long Island, music remained the organizing principle of family life. “Music was the staff that our family was played out against,” Errico has said. “Is that true of all Italian families? What beautiful memories of music I had growing up.” Notably, her father seduced her mother by playing Michel Legrand melodies on the piano. Meanwhile, brother Mike filled his bedroom with Steely Dan records. Even the grandmother had been an opera singer. Consequently, the genes predicted destiny.

The Epiphany at Twelve

At twelve, Errico experienced what she calls her epiphany. While watching a production of “On Your Toes” at the Virginia Theater in Manhattan, something clicked into place. Remarkably, a decade later, she would star in “My Fair Lady” on that same stage. But first came the children’s television show “The Great Space Coaster,” her professional debut at twelve. Subsequently, voice lessons with Rose Allen, one of Bernadette Peters’ early teachers, refined her instrument. The path was clear, even if the destination remained uncertain.

Indeed, when asked as a child what advice she needed to become an actress, Errico approached the legendary Marian Seldes at a restaurant. “I want to be an actress, what do I DO?” the eleven-year-old asked. Seldes turned to her and said in her deep melodious voice: “LIVE.”

The Chip: The Yale Dropout Who Chose Cosette Over Philosophy

Errico enrolled at Yale University to study art history and philosophy—serious subjects for a serious mind. However, during her freshman year, she went to New York to audition for a Rhode Island production of “George M.” At the time, she had kinky curly hair, tight shorts, and tap shoes. “You could think Bernadette Peters, you could think frizzy ’80s,” she later recalled. “You could also very much imagine that I looked like a Victorian novel.”

As fate would have it, down the hall at 1515 Broadway that same day, director Richard Jay-Alexander was casting the original national tour of “Les Misérables.” He spotted her in the hallway. “Richard saw me with the hair and the tap shoes,” Errico explained. “He saw a young girl and it looked like Cosette to him—minus the tap dance.”

She was nineteen. She got the part. Consequently, Yale would have to wait.

Fifteen Months on the Road

The Les Misérables tour lasted fifteen months. Night after night, Errico played Cosette, the waif transformed by love, and something in the role’s yearning matched something in her own soul. “She was a brilliant student and very good worker,” Jay-Alexander later said. “In fact, she was maybe one of the finest Cosettes ever because she just spilled it every night on stage in that last scene. Very beautiful to watch.”

After the tour, Errico returned to Yale and completed her degree. Additionally, she graduated from the British American Drama Academy’s program at Oxford. But academia was never going to hold her. Therefore, when she was accepted to Yale’s prestigious Graduate School of Drama, she dropped out to star in “Anna Karenina” on Broadway. The choice revealed her essential nature: she would always choose the stage over the seminar, the song over the syllabus.

The Rise: From Eliza Doolittle to Tony Nominee

Broadway embraced Melissa Errico with the urgency of recognition. At twenty-three, she starred as Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady” opposite Richard Chamberlain, performing at the Virginia Theater—the same stage where she’d experienced her twelve-year-old epiphany. The New York Times called her Eliza “beguiling.” Subsequently, she would reprise the role in 2003 at the Hollywood Bowl with John Lithgow and Roger Daltrey, proving she owned the part across decades.

Moreover, the Broadway roles accumulated with impressive range: “High Society” as Tracy Lord, “Anna Karenina” as Princess Kitty, “Dracula, The Musical,” and Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” in the Rosemary Clooney role. She also starred in “Oliver!” before the defining opportunity arrived with “Amour.”

Michel Legrand and the Tony Nomination

Michel Legrand—the French composer whose melodies had scored her parents’ courtship—was writing his first Broadway musical. Immediately, Errico heard about it and told her manager she had to audition. The manager responded: “I know, I know, I love her.” Errico was confused. “She’s NOT my manager anymore,” Errico later said.

Consequently, she pursued the role herself and won the lead in “Amour.” On the first day of rehearsal, she brought Legrand’s well-worn songbook for him to sign. Every day during breaks, the French composing legend “never stopped fiddling at the piano.” Ultimately, the experience earned her a Tony nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical—the formal recognition that she belonged among Broadway’s elite.

Keeper of the Legrand Flame

Years later, when Legrand died, Errico wrote his eulogy for the New York Times. Remarkably, she was the only American performer invited to appear at the two-day memorial concert at Paris’ Le Grand Rex. In a full-circle moment, her father had seduced her mother with Legrand melodies. Now she had become the keeper of his flame.

The Tell: The Water Fountain, Revisited

Remember the boy by the water fountain? Patrick McEnroe had grown up in Douglaston, Queens, and attended Buckley Country Day School with Melissa’s older brother Mike. To Patrick and Mike, Melissa was “just the annoying little sister” who tagged along. After eighth grade, however, Patrick went off to Trinity prep school in Manhattan. Their paths diverged.

Nevertheless, their parents stayed connected. Kay McEnroe followed Melissa’s rising Broadway career and tried to play matchmaker with her son. “Oh, Melissa Errico—you should see her! She’s amazing! She’s gorgeous!” Patrick nodded politely.

The Café on Canal Street

In his late twenties, Patrick McEnroe was recovering from shoulder surgery, his tennis career on pause. During this period, he found a postcard from his old friend Mike Errico announcing a musical gig at a café on Canal Street. With his right arm in a sling and nothing else to do, Patrick decided to attend. “I’m looking around to see if I can find Melissa,” he admitted later.

After Mike’s set, Patrick sat at the bar with both siblings. Mike remembered the moment vividly: “He looked at her, and I pretty much knew it was on. The attraction was there from the first moment, for sure.”

Subsequently, they got late-night burgers at The Corner Bistro in the West Village. Patrick walked her home at three in the morning, and the next day took her to the Angelika Film Center on West Houston Street. Finally, they married on December 19, 1998, at Holy Trinity Church on West 82nd Street. The girl by the water fountain had found her match.

The Hamptons Connection: Southampton Arts Center and Tennis Royalty

Today, Melissa Errico and Patrick McEnroe navigate between Bronxville (where they moved in 2016 after years in Manhattan) and the Hamptons, where their worlds intersect with particular elegance. Patrick runs the Johnny Mac Tennis Project with his brother John, hosting annual Pro-Am fundraisers in Bridgehampton. Similarly, Melissa performs regularly at Southampton Arts Center, bringing her acclaimed concerts to East End audiences.

Together with their three daughters—Victoria (19) and twins Diana and Juliette (16)—they embody a certain Hamptons ideal: accomplished parents pursuing separate passions while raising the next generation. Specifically, Patrick serves as President of the International Tennis Hall of Fame and provides commentary for ESPN’s U.S. Open coverage. Meanwhile, Melissa tours the world singing Sondheim and Legrand. In June 2024, they attended President Macron’s State Dinner for President Biden at the Élysée Palace in Paris. The water fountain romance has evolved into something approaching American aristocracy.

The Lessons of Losing

“We’re very similar in a lot of ways, the athlete and the performer,” Errico has explained. “We’re used to setbacks. We’re used to every day being back to zero. You’re going to lose a lot. In fact, you’re going to lose more than you win.”

Throughout their marriage, Patrick taught her tennis maxims that transformed into performance wisdom: “Don’t run to the ball, let it come to you.” “Relax your arm, the ball will go faster.” The philosophy applied equally to auditions and backhands. “This man who was trying to win the U.S. Open was teaching me that every world-class player except one will lose,” she realized. “Ultimately, there’s so much losing in winning.”

The Second Act: Sondheim, Carnegie Hall, and the New York Times

What distinguishes Errico’s career from other Broadway veterans is her deliberate construction of a second act. Rather than fading into supporting roles, she reinvented herself as a concert artist, recording artist, and author. Notably, Stephen Sondheim himself selected her to star as Dot in “Sunday in the Park with George” at the Kennedy Center, then cast her as Clara in “Passion” at Classic Stage Company. Furthermore, when Sondheim turned 90, she sang “Children and Art” in his birthday concert.

Her 2018 album “Sondheim Sublime” earned the Wall Street Journal’s declaration as “the best all-Sondheim album ever recorded.” Subsequently, her 2024 follow-up, “Sondheim In The City,” was praised by the New York Times as “a New York house tour of thrill and heartbreak.” In July 2025, she made her London solo concert hall debut at Cadogan Hall. The ingenue had become the interpreter, the keeper of the flame.

The Essays and the Book

Meanwhile, Errico has quietly established herself as an author. Her New York Times essay series “Scenes From An Acting Life” chronicles the comic twists and absurdities of a performer’s existence with literary flair. In one essay, she explored returning to ingenue roles in her forties (“When should Sharon stop wearing a ponytail and dancing with leprechauns?”). Additionally, she chronicled performing on themed cruises, digitally rehearsing during COVID, and the peculiar loneliness of hotel rooms on tour. These essays are being collected into a book—another revenue stream, another dimension of her career.

The range is remarkable: Carnegie Hall and cruise ships, Sondheim and CBS television, the Élysée Palace and Birdland Jazz Club. “Any chance to hear Melissa Errico sing is a chance worth taking,” the New York Times concluded simply.

What Melissa Errico’s Fortune Reveals About Artistic Value

Melissa Errico’s $5 million net worth represents something different from the tech billions and real estate fortunes that dominate Hamptons wealth. Essentially, hers is the accumulated value of craft pursued relentlessly across decades—the compounding interest of excellence. No single windfall created her fortune. Instead, it grew from thousands of performances, hundreds of concerts, dozens of recordings, and countless hours of practice that began at twelve years old.

At 55, she continues expanding rather than contracting. Currently, her 2025 concert schedule spans from Palm Beach to London. Moreover, her new album “I Can Dream, Can’t I?” arrives in fall 2025. Additionally, she teaches master classes at HB Studios and the 92nd Street Y, passing knowledge to the next generation of performers. The girl who approached Marian Seldes in a restaurant now receives similar approaches from aspiring actresses.

For profiles of artists who shape Hamptons cultural life, from Broadway to the concert stage, contact Social Life Magazine about feature opportunities. Experience the intersection of performance and society at Polo Hamptons.

The Abundance of Musical Inheritance

The water fountain moment lasted only seconds. Yet somehow those seconds contained everything that followed: the recognition, the long pause, the spark that survived twenty years of separation before finally igniting. Melissa Errico built her career on such moments—the instant when a song cracks open and reveals something true, the breath before a note that changes everything. Remarkably, her father played Legrand to seduce her mother, and decades later she became Legrand’s interpreter and eulogist. Similarly, her grandmother sang opera, and she became “The Maria Callas of the American musical theater.” The wound, in her case, wasn’t deprivation or rejection. Instead, it was abundance—so much music, so much longing, so much beauty in the family bloodline that she had no choice but to spend her life singing it forward.

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