Melissa Errico and Constantine Maroulis in “Our Table” - a live concert recording of the much-talked of musical composed by David Shire with book and lyrics by Adam Gopnik. Recorded live on a January night at Manhattan’s Feinstein’s/54 Below, the musical, which tells the story of a beloved New York restaurant fighting for its life, has never been more relevant than now, when the entire New York restaurant industry is fighting for its life. The release also marks the 60th year in the New York musical theatre career and tenth original musical of David Shire. Previously best known for his collaborations with Richard Maltby Jr., “Our Table” is his first collaboration with Gopnik, whose writings he had long admired and who agreed to join in this adaptation of themes and scenes from his book on the philosophy of food, “The Table Comes First” and his story of a New York family, “Through The Children’s Gate”. (Keeping everything ‘in the family’ it was Maltby who directed the 54 performance!) To further celebrate Shire, his longtime muse Liz Callaway and Tony-winner Alice Ripley joined the cast to record an additional bonus track, the Shire-Gopnik hymn to the many marriages we make in life, “Lucky!” - a highlight from the Our Table score but cut from the 54 Evening.

“Our Table”, narrated by Adam Gopnik, was inspired by the real lives of two New York cooking couples - Peter and Susan Hoffman of Savoy and David and Karen Waltuck of Chanterelle. It tells the story of the Kaplan family, father and chef David, mother and host Claire, and their two children, Bix and Katie, who live with them ‘above the store’ in their small, much loved Union Square restaurant Table - “the most beautiful room in New York”, as Alice Waters once called it. When its existence is threatened with closure by real-estate development, Claire and David turn to their old partner and estranged best friend, super-star television bad boy chef, Sergio Momesso, to try and rescue their home and beloved restaurant. What David doesn’t know is that Sergio and Claire had a brief but passionate love affair twenty years before - and that Sergio is back in Manhattan more to retake Claire than to remake TABLE. Filled with beloved New York locales - an opening choral ensemble is sung in the Greenmarket itself - the story takes us from Soho to the depths of Flatbush - including a love story set at Carlo’s, the last anarchist pizza parlor in Brooklyn.

The show displays Shire’s musical gifts in their usual abundance, with a new jazz-inflected New York lilt. Adam Gopnik brings his genius for capturing real life New York narratives while expressing them with a deft linguistic shimmer - his trademarks in The New Yorker Magazine for the past thirty-five years - to both the show’s lyrics and to his spontaneous narration of its story. The inimitable and sublime Melissa Errico, for whom the part was written, takes the role of ex-ballerina Claire, while her frequent co-star Andy Taylor plays David, and the unforgettably rakish Constantine Maroulis brings devilish flair to the role of Sergio. Mark Nelson offers a comic tour de force as Carlo the anarchist pizza maker - and Melissa’s own daughter, Juliette McEnroe, makes her Broadway Records debut in the role of her daughter Katie! Rounding out the cast are Tyler Jones (The Book of Mormon) and Analise Scarpaci (Mrs. Doubtfire). From Springsteen style New Jersey rock ballads - “Doo Wop Motel” - to elegant Sondheimian scene-songs - “Chopping Onions/Folding Napkins” - the score throughout shows off Shire’s evergreen genius at its prolific and varied best.

Digital Release Date: June 19, 2020

A Center Stage Records Release