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Erica Garraffa to channel Laura Nyro at Tampa show
One of the most prolific and successful songwriters of the late 1960s and early ‘70s, Laura Nyro (1947-97) was a New Yorker with a soulful, three-octave voice, and her songs were turned into hits by a cross-section of artists, from the 5th Dimension to Blood, Sweat & Tears, from Barbra Streisand to Three Dog Night.
Laura Nyro. Image: Sony Music.
Her singing voice was something of an acquired taste, which meant she never had a major hit under her own name. But “Stoned Soul Picnic,” “And When I Die,” “Eli’s Coming,” “Sweet Blindness,” “Wedding Bell Blues” and “Stoney End” have becoming enduring classics.
Nyro was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2010, and into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two years later.
Tampa’s Erica Garraffa will channel Nyro in Soul Picnic: A Celebration of Laura Nyro Friday at Stageworks Theatre (a show Saturday is now sold out).
It’s a musical cabaret, Garraffa explains, as opposed to a jukebox musical or a “stage biography.” Soul Picnic was first performed in 2015, with a script and a cast of “characters,” but this time around it’s been pared down to the bare essentials: Laura Nyro and her timeless songs.
“It’s me and a band,” the vocalist says. “It’s a bit more intimate than the original show. It’s a lot more challenging for me, but that’s part of the fun.”
(Nyro was a singing/songwriting pianist; Garraffa’s band of onstage musicians includes a pianist, a drummer and a bass, and hopefully a surprise.) “I’m explaining her life, her evolution throughout the show, interspersed with different songs. It’s really a celebration of her life, with her songs mixed in there as well.”
Both versions of Soul Picnic were written and directed by Nyro uber-fan Barry Silber of Tampa.
“When I first did the show nine years ago, I knew nothing about Laura Nyro,” Garraffa confessed. “And that might represent large parts of the population.
“But he is a huge fan, and he taught me all about her. And I come to learn that a lot of the songs from the ‘60s and ‘70s that I really liked, were actually written by her and I just never knew.”
Garreffa is a professional voiceover artist (“I sit in a closet and talk to myself for a living”); she does commercials and audio books (“and one video game”), and is the “voice” of Lalilo, an educational technology platform designed to enhance the reading and literacy skills of early learners.
“It’s something that I really enjoy. I’ve been an actor for most of my life, and doing voiceover is the way I can scratch that acting bug at home.”
Garraffa and Jesse Hutson are the creators, writers, directors and co-performers of Tales of Mild Interest, a series of staged comedic readings that has sold out numerous performances at the Tampa International Fringe Festival.
And yes, she’s a singer, too. “I’m usually kind of a low belter,” Garraffa said. “I call myself a contralto. But I had to change the style in which I sing for this show. Laura is notorious for her really unique chord structures and tempo changes, and she sings up in a very high ‘head’ voice. Which is not my normal style, so I did have to change a lot of how I sing.
“I will say that when we did the last show, I was very much trying to embody Laura. But now, because this is more of a cabaret-style show, I’m doing kind of a mix between her voice and my own voice. I’m not playing her so much as I am paying tribute to her.”
Stageworks Theatre is at 1120 E. Kenndy Blvd. in Tampa. Find tickets for Soul Picnic: A Celebration of Laura Nyro here.
