Review: Erica Garraffa Brings Laura Nyro to Life in SOUL PICNIC: A CELEBRATION OF LAURA NYRO

“I idolized [Laura Nyro].  The soul, the passion, the out-and-out audacity of her rhythmic and melodic changes was like nothing I’d heard before.” --Elton John

“There’s so much depth and passion and bravery in her work.  She was authentic to the core.” --Sara Bareilles

“We could build the dream with love.” –from Laura Nyro’s “Save the Country”

It’s one of pop’s great mysteries.  Why did Laura Nyro, creator of some of the most iconic and foot-tappingly joyous music of the late 1960s, ultimately turn her back on the limelight and fade away into near-obscurity?  For four years, she was on a trajectory to sheer stardom, even though her labyrinthian pop sound was quite unique and impossible to pigeonhole, combining everything from rhythm & blues,  to Tin Pan Alley, to gospel, to folk, to pop and rock. 

She was a one-of-a-kind performer with a voice like no other, but it was her songwriting that captured the late-60s free-flowing, love-is-the-answer zeitgeist.  But her music also transcends those times, and most of her songs still sound fresh and not at all like some moldy-oldie forgotten AM-hit popping up on the Sirius 60s Gold channel.

Back in the day, Nyro’s music peppered the radio, and at one point in 1969, three of her songs by different artists landed in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the same week: “Wedding Bell Blues” by The Fifth Dimension, “And When I Die” by Blood, Sweat & Tears and “Eli’s Comin’” by Three Dog Night.

Other people had hits with her songs, but she couldn’t achieve name recognition on her own.  She played Monterey Pop and thought the audience booed her (only until years later did we discover that they weren’t boos but someone screaming “beautiful!”) Her own version of “Wedding Bell Blues,” by the way, landed at #103 on the Billboard “bubbling under” charts, but the same song in the hands of The Fifth Dimension roared its way to #1. She was just too quirky a personality, too outside the box, and the marketing geniuses didn’t know what to do with her. 

The unconventional Nyro boasted some of the loveliest albums to emerge from the late 1960s and very early 1970s: More Than a New Discovery, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, New York Tendaberry, Christmas and the Beads of Sweat and Gonna Take a Miracle.  Of the songwriters from the past sixty years, she is in my top five, riding high along with the likes of Lennon-McCartney, Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson and Stephen Sondheim.  There are even photos of Nyro lounging around an apartment with Sondheim in the late 1960s; what I would give to be a fly on the wall to eavesdrop on their conversation back then.  (For the record, Sondheim, who could be as brutally blistering in his criticism  of music as anyone, crowned Nyro’s “Stoned Soul Picnic” as a “masterpiece.”)

Then she, at the age of 24, walked away from it all, just as the female singer-songwriter movement was in full bloom with Carole King and Joni Mitchell hitting their apex with, respectively, Tapestry and Blue.  Nyro made more music over the next two decades, but not nearly enough.  When she died in 1997 at the age of 49, she was all but forgotten except by diehards.  But here we are, many years after she was (finally) inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, still talking about her, listening to her incredible oeuvre, and loving her “authenticity” (as Sara Bareilles put it). 

No one can measure the range of Nyro’s legacy.  She’s inspired numerous musicians, including Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Suzanne Vega, Rickie Lee Jones, Bette Midler as well as Alice Cooper, Elvis Costello, Steely Dan and even Paul Stanley of Kiss.

She is perhaps pop’s ultimate cult artist, but one whose songs were able to bleed into the mainstream.

They call her fans Nyrotics, or Nyro Nyrds, and you can count me as one of them. (I recently put her “Save the Country” on my 2024 go-to political playlist.)  Possibly the biggest Nyrotic in the Tampa Bay area is Barry Silber, and nine years ago he wrote and produced a jukebox musical called And a World to Carry On: Laura Nyro Remembered at the Carrollwood Players.  I had the honor of attending it then, and although that show was sometimes patchy and didactic, Laura’s music sounded marvelous, especially when interpreted by the incredibly talented Erica Garraffa as Nyro.

But now Mr. Silber is back with another Nyro tour de force, SOUL PICNIC: A CELEBRATION OF Laura Nyro, a one-person cabaret that ended its two-day run at Stageworks on October 26th.  And any issues I had with Mr. Silber’s earlier play immediately dissipated with this new, tighter, substantially stronger work; there’s zero patchiness here, only the joy and love of Ms. Nyro’s unforgettable music.

Mr. Silber’s timing couldn’t be better, with a new Laura Nyro limited edition Deluxe box set coming this December: Hear My Song: The Collection, 1966-1995.  Are we in for a Laura Nyro resurgence?  Let’s hope so!

In SOUL PICNIC, once again inhabiting the role of Laura Nyro is Erica Garraffa, and audience members instantly knew that they were in the right place at the right time the moment she sang the opening lyrics of “And When I Die” a cappella.  This is music where it’s impossible not to bop to, to tap your feet, to smile.  Ms. Garraffa’s voice is in top form, and she captures that signature Nyro sound to a tee.  The show fueled two standing ovations the night I saw it, and Ms. Garraffa, who earned my pick for one of the best performances of the last decade, will probably get my vote once again for the current one.

SOUL PICNIC runs a brisk ninety minutes, and it features most of Nyro’s most famous tunes (“And When I Die,” “Stoned Soul Picnic,” “Sweet Blindness,” “Blowing Away,” “Wedding Bell Blues,” “Time and Love,” “Eli’s Comin’” and “Stoney End”).  But I preferred some of the more unheralded numbers, like “Timer,” “Lu,” “When I Was a Freeport and You Were the Main Drag,” and a new favorite of mine, “Sweet Dream Fade.” During her rendition of “Captain Saint Lucifer,”   Ms. Garraffa ends the song with her index finger in the air, and she points it to the pianist at the exact moment of the last note, and the moment ran so true, so perfect. 

Between songs Ms. Garraffa recounts various anecdotes about Nyro’s life--her upbringing, her songwriting, her encounters with Paul Simon (not so good)  and Crosby, Stills and Nash (she’s part of the reason they were able to skyrocket under the guidance of then-manager David Geffen). Hearing her soulful yet angelic vocals, following along with the various stories of Nyro’s peak years, I was in heaven.  Absolute bliss.    

My only qualm with the script is that the last twenty years of her life are pretty much fast-forwarded through.  And although her Greta Garbo-like latter years and influences are touched on, we never really understand the whys of her hibernation from the music business.  Also, I wish they had included a song list in the program, especially for newbies to Ms. Nyro, so that those audience members unfamiliar with her can seek her songs long after the show is over. 

SOUL PICNIC is deftly directed by Mr. Silber in what can only be described as a labor of love; he also can never go wrong casting Erica Garraffa in the lead.  And her backing musicians, onstage the entire time, are simply terrific: Paul Porter on drums, Ricky Kittelstad on piano, and Alan Thomas on bass.  There’s somewhat of a we’re-in-a-bar feel to it all, with audience members sitting at a few select tables, and there’s also a feeling like we’re in a really engaging history class (and yes, sometimes it seems like a Laura Nyro Wikipedia page sprung to life). But it's Ms. Garraffa who ultimately mesmerizes in the role, who connects with the audience and resurrects one of history’s most interesting and soulful singer-songwriters.

Before seeing this coolest of cabarets, I mentioned to a friend--who’s either a Gen Xer or a Millennial--that I was seeing a show based on the life of Laura Nyro.  As is often the case when I mention Ms. Nyro’s name, I was asked a simple question: “Who?”

“The singer-songwriter.  She wrote so many great hits.”  I listed the titles, and my friend hadn’t heard of any of them.  I then played the songs on my iPhone.  She easily recognized “Wedding Bell Blues” and maybe “Eli’s Comin,’” but none of the other ones. That’s why shows like this are so important. SOUL PICNIC keeps Ms. Nyro’s legacy alive and re-introduces her and her formidable songwriting to a new generation, so that they can experience the magic of her works that are, as one fan put it, “what love sounds like.” 

SOUL PICNIC ended its two-day run on Saturday, October 26th. 

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