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Martha Wainwright Sings Laura Nyro to Make World Premiere September 26-28 at Joe's PubWainwright Channels Her Singular Voice to Give Fresh Interpretation to the Late, Legendary Singer Songwriter’s Early Works
This September, singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright will bring a legendary New York legacy to the storied New York venue Joe’s Pub (425 Lafayette St). On three evenings (September 26, 27, & 28, 2025), Wainwright will interpret Laura Nyro’s songs inspired by Manhattan—in all the sweeping emotion, stirring poetry, and pioneering genre-defiance the city brought out in the infinitely wise-beyond-her-years artist when she was just coming into adulthood. Wainwright will also perform selections from her own body of work that resonate thematically with Nyro’s songs.
Produced by BAM President Emerita Karen Brooks Hopkins and producer/director Carol Polakoff and featuring Thomas Bartlett (the pianist/producer/singer known as Doveman) and multi-reedist Doug Wieselman (both frequent Wainwright collaborators), the world premiere Martha Wainwright Sings Laura Nyro brings a fresh interpretation to the astonishing songwriting of a voice lost far too early, in an evening equally engaging for Nyro aficionados and neophytes alike.
Wainwright has been celebrated for her “piercingly honest” (The Guardian) writing, her “firey confidence…[and] twist of poetic attitude” (BBC), and her “versatile voice that moves fluidly from intimate exhalations… to angry exhortations… to florid cascades” (Pitchfork). Nyro, the “phenomenal singers’ singer” whose devotees included Elton John, Barbara Streisand, 5th Dimension, Three Dog Night, Alice Cooper, Blood, Sweat, and Tears, Stephen Sondheim, and Patti LaBelle was likewise celebrated for her “soaring, open-hearted voice and ingeniously-crafted compositions” (The Guardian).
In a concert review from a performance at Carnegie Hall in 1969—surrounding the release of her acclaimed, soulful third album New York Tendaberry—Nyro was praised for her “songs that reflected a young, contemporary, urban view of life.” The newspaper continued, “Both she and her songs are products of the city,” noting that the album’s title track, in which she sings, “You look like a city/But you feel like religion,” referred to the “warmth she finds under the harsh surface of the city.” From 1967 to 1971, beginning when she was just 20 (with many songs dating back to when she was only 16), she released a masterpiece album every year (More Than a New Discovery, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, New York Tendaberry, and Christmas and the Beads of Sweat), before meeting, befriending, and touring with Patti Labelle and collaborating with her band on 1971’s Gonna Take a Miracle.
Songs from across this era comprise Martha Wainwright Sings Laura Nyro, tonally bounding between the jazzy buoyancy of “Stoned Soul Picnic,” the pared down, goosebump-provoking intimacy of “New York Tendaberry,” the unflinchingly dark storytelling of “Gibsom Street,” and the surprisingly uplifted, future-forward rumination on death in “And When I Die.”
Wainwright is simultaneously, in a separate 20th anniversary tour of her acclaimed and largely New York-set self-titled debut album, revisiting her own songwriting from her 20s. The poignancy of returning to a city so central to her own artistic growth through the lens and words of the early work of an artist who died at 49—exactly the age Wainwright is now—is not lost on her.
She said, “It’s a cool challenge finding the way into her songs: they are so poetic, and make you wonder ‘how was she so young?’ Of course young people are really emotionally intuitive, but they’re not jaded yet and they’re not careful yet. Young writers can express things that often, as we get older, we might not feel the same freedom to say. It’s amazing to be thrown back into this mindset of fewer filters. And then there’s also the fact that I’m singing these songs from the point of view and body of a middle-aged woman, which she never got to be. I’m finding these things that resonate with me while also just trying to show how incredible the songs are.”
Hopkins and Polakoff originally met as camp counselors and visited each other in college, listening to Nyro in each other’s dorms, and in more recent years became similarly obsessed with Wainwright’s musicianship. Hopkins had a ‘eureka’ moment: that Wainwright’s emotional connection through music—her ability to “go there” truly, deeply, and madly—was very Nyro-esque. She approached the musician about performing her work—not as an imitation, but as a bridge between these two unmistakably unique artists.
Hopkins says, “As a young woman, Laura Nyro’s music got me through all the trauma and joy of my college years. She is simply the most profound poet, composer, and performer I have ever experienced. Martha has the capacity to channel the great emotion of Laura through her own remarkable voice and interpretive skills. Joined by Thomas Bartlett on piano and Doug Wieselman, on many different instruments, this will be a show to remember.”
Polakoff said, “Laura Nyro came into my 20-year-old, searching-for-meaning-in-the-universe life, and I grabbed Laura’s music—its soul, wisdom, genius and ‘knowing’ and never let go. For us teen/20-year-olds, she exemplified a struggling, beautiful in-process human being who was willing to share herself and her view of the world with us. We put on the headphones, lit up a joint, and grabbed every new album, which became the book of our lives (how did she know that?) from first song to last. When Martha sat down and sung the guts and glory of Laura for me and Karen, we knew we had a show. Fasten your seat belts—we’re in for a beautiful heart-rending, hip-shaking ride.”
Tickets and Schedule
Performances take place September 26 & 27 at 7pm, and September 28 at 6pm.
Tickets are $42 (inclusive of advance phone/web service fee; door price) and can be purchased
https://publictheater.org/performances-jp/2025/m/martha-wainwright-sings-laura-nyro/
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Joe's Pub, 425 Lafayette St,New York, New York, United States
Tickets
