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Erika Brett

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Hometown	Chicago, IL
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Band Members	Josh Solomon, Danny Rosenthal, Nate Bellon
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Upcoming Shows	None

Contact Information:
# Years Experience Performing Live:	5
Market Draw:	Home Market: 251-300
Performing Rights Society:	ASCAP

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About the Artist

It was a small infatuation with the musical, Annie, that brought a three-year-old red-hatted Erika Brett into the performing realm of her living room singing "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile." But when her grandparents delivered an ivory...

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Top 40 in Southern Rock, April 2012

Top 40 in Southern Rock, March 2012

Top 40 in Southern Rock, August 2011

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Press Coverage

Browns 'Five Years' highly recommendable by Chris Jones
The new basement studio at the Apollo Theater is a misshapen shoebox of the space -- sit too far to the left and you find yourself staring at the concessions stand all night. Every 10 minutes or so, the Brown Line emits an atonal growl from what feels like inches away. And delve into the biographies of the two-person cast of the new production of Jason Robert Brown's "The Last Five Years," and you find a lot of collegiate credits.

Performers Erika Brett Holleb and Jonathan Hymen look like they're about two years out of school. The director, Jeremy Henry, admits to having been at Florida State, like, eight months ago. And the two-person band? Let's just say a smart bartender would be looking for proof of age.

This is, I suspect, a production of the grand let's-raise-the-money-do-it-ourselves-an d-not-wait-around-for-someone-else-to-cast-us tradition.

But you know, the resultant show isn't bad at all. Thoroughly recommendable, in fact.

Granted, there's something pleasingly romantic about a bunch of young music-theater kids getting their collective acts together (with the help of a Wilmette lawyer) and displaying the kind of passion not easily duplicated when one is older and more cynical.

But Brown's show isn't a graduation exercise. Essentially a cabaret song suite, it's tough to sing. And since there are only two characters -- an arty New York couple whose relationship goes from adoration to tatters in five years -- and no scenery, it's just you out there on the naked platforms.

You wouldn't want to overpraise Holleb and Hymen -- when it comes to revealing inner pain, they both have a long way to go. But they're already spirited, truthful and surprisingly sophisticated. And they both sing Brown's emotionally powerful music very, very well. When you add a simple, intimate, unpretentious staging from Henry, you've got a 90 minutes that can get quite a lump going in the throat.

The gimmick of this piece is that Holleb's character, Cathy, starts out at the end of her short marriage and moves backward in time. Meanwhile, Hymen's Jamie starts at the first blush of love and moves toward heartbreak. He's a famous writer; she's a struggling actress. Brown was writing from personal experience -- and I've always felt he stacked the deck in favor of the writer. The actress mainly gets her heart broken for 90 minutes.

To her credit, though, Holleb manages both to perform beautifully and yet also give us the clear sense that her neurotic character is only a mediocre actress -- that's tough to pull off. Hymen could find more of his character's selfishness, but he has an appealing voice and a genial acting style.

As with all decent relationship musicals, it's not tough to relate to this piece. This young crew is headed to one of the little theaters at the Royal George next. If you like contemporary, serious off-Broadway musicals -- and Brown's work in particular -- check out the debut of La Costa Theatre Company.

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The Last Five Years" performs through Sunday at the Apollo Theater, 2540 N. Lincoln Ave. (773-935-6100) and then March 30-April 30 at the Royal George Theatre, 1641 N. Halsted St. (312-988-9000). Tickets are $25.

The Last Five Years by Lawrence Bommer
La Costa Theatre Company's remarkably rich 90-minute revival of Jason Robert Brown's dramatic song cycle (which premiered five years ago at Northlight) honors the innate theatricality of its 15 supple songs. Chronicling the ill-fated marriage of promising novelist Jamie and driven actress Cathy, his songs run forward from their first date to the final breakup while hers take us backward. Only in the middle do their stories converge, in the ballad "The Next Ten Minutes." Brown packs wisdom into his deceptively modest autopsy of romantic failure, and under Jeremy Henry's warm direction, Erika Brett Holleb and Jonathan Hymen are superb, giving conviction to every unshared sacrifice, mixed message, unconditional hope, and bittersweet revelation.

Through 3/19: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 4 PM, Apollo Theater, studio, 2540 N. Lincoln, 773-935-6100, $25. + Then 3/30-4/30: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 4 PM, Royal George Theatre Center, 1641 N. Halsted, 312-988-9000, $25.

A New Brain by Lawrence Bommer
In this glorious small-scale show, La Costa Theatre Company exhibits the same energy and classy confidence it brought to The Last Five Years earlier this year. A New Brain--William Finn and James Lapine's 1998 musical about Finn facing brain surgery--employs 34 songs in 90 minutes to chronicle fears of mortality and doubts about art. Directors Greg Malen and Betsy Hansfield put a flawless cast through all the right moves and notes. Though Jonathan Hymen and Riley Thomas are too young to play midlife lovers struggling with a near-death experience, they've clearly grown into their parts. And the musical direction, by Thomas and Erika Brett Holleb, is so good it's scary.

Through 8/27: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 4 PM, A Red Orchid Theatre, 1531 N. Wells, 866-468-3401, $15-$25.

'New Brain' is absurdist lite by Nina Metz
August 11, 2006|By Nina Metz, Special to the Tribune,

Musicals tend to be larger-than-life, a quality not easily achieved on tiny storefront stages. Somehow co-directors Greg Malen and Betsy Hansfield have cracked the code with their first-rate production of "A New Brain" for La Costa Theatre Company, currently renting space at A Red Orchid Theatre in Old Town.

The show is based on the real-life events of composer William Finn, best known for "Falsettos" (a comedy about the neuroses of a Jewish bisexual) and "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" (currently in an open run at the Drury Lane Water Tower).

But in the decade before "Spelling Bee," Finn was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain ailment that required surgery. In this neuro-bio--a musical comedy, of course; this is Finn--"A New Brain" follows the trajectory of a gay composer who finds himself in the hospital after face-planting into a lunch of ziti.

Surrounded by nattering doctors, nurses, a concerned mother and doting friends, the guy is alternately flabbergasted, depressed, confused, horrified and contemplative. The tone is Monty Python-lite--absurdist, but nothing that will flatten your back against the seat.

That is the show's biggest problem. The composer's situation is dire, but the musical never finds a matching intensity--the comedy needs to be deeper and darker; same goes for the introspective ballads.

The result is a show that starts to feel long around the 30-minute mark, and there's still an hour to go. But this is a strongly (and cleanly) executed production, it's worth a go-see for fans of Finn.

Good casting goes a long way, too, and the voices don't disappoint. As the street urchin--talk about a non-sequitur character--Erika Brett Holleb (resembling a young Beverly D'Angelo) gets to show off some killer pipes. Jess Godwin is also noteworthy as a scarily intense nurse with the voice of a songbird.

Golden Bird by Chicago's Independent Music Review
With music you know you’ve got something good within 20 seconds of hearing it. Todd Kessler’s song, “Golden Bird” has a Led Zepplin like melody at the beginning – really a classic rock sound with a simple arrangement: handclaps/piano/acoustic guitar and beautiful vocals. Honestly probably the best combination of voices I’ve heard in two months, Todd and Erika Brett (of “Empty Pockets”), come together in a collaboration of ages and present us with a gift in the form of music. Golden Bird is really a wonderfully done song they have perfected the phrase less is more – all the accents are right where they should be, and the mix is exactly right for this type of song. The vocals lay perfectly next to one another. It’s folk music at its finest, tells a lovely story using a woven in metaphor, allusions to flying, jumping and being free – Todd Kessler uses clichés to remind the audience of what they already know – he doesn’t haphazardly throw them into the lyrics because it’s the first thing that came to his mind. You can tell this is a well thought out recording and a well thought out collaboration between two fantastic artists. What would otherwise be a very boring guitar strum comes across as comforting when accompanied by the simple piano chords and small tinkering throughout. Their sound is one that is very very similar to one of my favorite acoustic bands, “The Weepies” and here my only wish is for a little more low-end. Possibly an upright bass, but me thinks an electric bass would work nicely here as well.

If you like folk music and dig on the Coffee House station on Sirius XM radio, then Todd Kessler is your cup o’ joe. Come see him play Golden Bird March 11th at Schuba’s on Belmont and Southport for a relaxing night of lovely music.

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Erika Brett

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